Adjust
by Lalenja
Summary: We judge ourselves by our intentions, other judge us by our actions. – Author unknown - The sequel to: The Auction
1. The proposition

**AN: **Hi and welcome, this is my second part of the story The Auction. Please read this first, for a better understanding to some of the characters and other background information.

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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Chapter 1: The proposition

Andrew was screwed, he just knew it. His life had come to an end and a pretty violent one, if the two bulky men holding him on the left and right by his arms was any indication to go by.

Neither of the two had less than 200 pounds of muscle, almost tearing the tight black suits they wore apart. Short hair, cut similar to the military, made Andrew believe that they both came from an army background. Their faces not showing any emotion, also added fuel to his suspicions that he was not the first one to receive this treatment and he was certainly wouldn't be the last.

Andrew himself was still dressed in the perfectly fitted suit he had put on the evening before, when fate was still in his favor. He had stood in front of a crowd of potential buyers for a unique object that promised to bring him a fortune. Then Batman appeared, jumping out of nowhere, taking that blasted thermos with him, right after he had scored with Lex Luther the best possible buyer, or at least the one with the deepest pockets.

Now with the thermos gone Andrew had not only made Mr. Luthor a very, very powerful man very, very angry. He had also lost any reputation he had acquired in the past. Well, possible that he had soon no more need for it anyway.

He swallowed hard, sending an anxious glance down the dimly lit corridor that his two companions forced him to walk down, although he was more dragged as actually allowed to walk by himself, his feet barely touching the ground.

On the narrow end he could barely see a door, their apparent goal. Hanging his head in defeat, Andrew accepted his fate. Oh he had tried to talk his way out, even put up a little fight (not that the two men had much trouble to restrain him anyway). However, they had not listened to his words but instead just seized him from his comfortable home. Forcing him now to walk towards a possible (and most likely) painful death, like a convict on his last walk on death row.

All too soon the hallway came to an end and they stood before a heavy door reinforced with thick metal straps.

Not waiting for any invitation goon number one pushed the door open and Andrew was guided by goon number two inside.

Behind a huge and very impressive wooden desk sat Mr. Luthor. The auctioneer had half expected to see the man one last time, just not in person, perhaps instead via video screen so that he could witness his demise. Andrew didn't know whether he should feel special that he may be killed by the billionaires hand or very unlucky to pay the price for the interrupted auction with his life.

"Mr. Nolan, how nice of you to join me" greeted the sleek business man his compelled guest. His voice sent shivers down Andrews's spine, and not of the good sort. He was led to the simple chair waiting empty before the desk. A heavy hand on his shoulder forced him to sit down.

The auctioneer straightened his posture, after the hand had released him of course. He wasn't raised as an idiot and his way with words might actually allow him to live through this, not that he was giving himself a good chance.

Brushing non-existent dirt from his suit arms he replied: "It's nice to be here, may I enquire how I have earned such an honour Mr. Luthor" feeling pleased with himself that he had managed to keep his voice from trembling.

Sending a subtitle and nervous glare through the room, Andrew had noticed that the two goons had both taken position next to the only visible entry into the room. The walls left and right from him were stylish decorated with well stocked bookshelves, paintings and other collectables.

One of the paintings actually sparked his interest. With his experienced eyes he realized right away what he was looking at. A real Picasso painting, and if his memory wasn't compromised by his current ordeal, this one had supposedly been destroyed in World War Two.

Prying his eyes from the historical find, he concentrated his focus back on the other business man in the room.

Meanwhile, Luthor had risen from the chair behind his desk and walked around the impressive piece of furniture, casually leaning his back against it until his hands were resting next to him.

"Ah well, Mr. Nolan, I think we both have unfinished business to attend to."

Andrew swallowed down a lump in his throat. His life was on the line, so he had to make it right. "I'm aware of that. How to you wish to proceed?" Anxious about the answer he glanced up, holding his voice steady enough that it almost sounded casual.

Luthor waved with his hand, giving the men behind him a signal. The small gesture made Andrew flinch, expecting a hit or something else, shattering the already unbelievable illusion of a calm facade.

A black briefcase was handed to Luthor, who acted as if he had not seen the reaction from the other man. He placed the briefcase on the desk, and snapped the two golden combination locks open.

Confused, Andrew tried to see what the case was holding. His first guess would be a weapon or something else the high-ranking man could use to inflict unbearable pain and in the end kill him. Stretching his neck as best he could without actually leaving the chair, he caught a glimpse of sparkling crystals. Perplexed he blinked and looked from the briefcase to his host.

Fully aware of the other man's reaction, Lex waited long enough to make his guest start fidgeting on the chair, before he turned the open briefcase so that the auctioneer could finally see its contents.

On a bed out of black velvet lay dozens of sparkling diamonds in different size, shape and cut.

"500 Million in diamonds, I thought gold would be a little bit heavy and I do remember that you preferred to receive your payment in cash and not transferred." chimed Luthor, displaying his best poker face smile that would charm anyone.

Andrew blinked twice, nevertheless not letting his eyes wander too far away from the fortune displayed before him. Greed flashed in his eyes and unintentionally he moved his hand to touch the answer to his dreams. The second he was close enough to almost lay a hand on it, the top of the briefcase was forcefully shut close.

Andrew flinched back violently, causing his chair scratch over the surface of the floor, producing a very unpleasant sound that hurt the ears.

"I ... I don't understand Mr. Luthor." He managed to stammer after Andrew had composed himself enough to speak again.

"Oh I'm sure with a little bit of thinking you can grasp what this means." Luthor once more leaned against the desk, standing tall and intimidating.

Analyzing the situation and thinking fast, trying to summarize what had happened Andrew soon came to a conclusion. He paled, causing an even harder contrast between his black hair and his dark suit.

"You want me to get it back." His voice barely audible faded in the room.

"Correct," Confirmed his host.

"From Batman?" Andrew asked, his voice shaking.

"I get the Thermos and the energy source inside and you will be rewarded with the arranged price. I think that's a fair deal and beside you already managed to obtain the Thermos once."

Andrew involuntary nodded: "Yes, from S.T.A.R. Laps New York, but getting it from Batman is impossible." shaking his head by the end of his sentence.

Luthor inspected his fingernails in boredom, not interested in the excuses the man before him stammered. "You can either acquire my Thermos or suffer the consequences of breaking a deal with me."

The two bulky bodyguard/goons stepped next to either side from the auctioneer, wordless promising pain and despair for him, should he chose the wrong answer to Mr. Luthor's words.

Andrew used all his mental strength he had left to stop himself from shaking, his foreboding confirmed. Death was lingering over his head waiting for him to make his choice, either die now violently with no option to escape or die an unknown death when he faced the dark crusader. Truth to be told, there was a slight chance to come out on top, but if Andrew was someone who gambled he would not even set a penny on himself to survive this. He was just a toy, a pawn in a play so much bigger than he ever anticipated.

Making up his mind, he forced down the lump in his throat, stood up and reached with his right hand towards his host. "I'll get your property back Mr. Luthor."

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**AN:** This chapter is dedicated to one of my Beta readers: Anchanee. She is amazing and without her my stories wouldn't even be half as good as they may be :) Don't think I forgot you Talia Ahria, a big thanks goes to her too, as she has helped me with this chapter a lot!

So, no Danny in this chapter, and it's not very long, sorry about that ... Unfortunately I won't be able to have a regular update schedule, however I try to update once a month, but no promises. See my profile for more information on why I'm so slow and my other projects.

A small reminder, I'm not native English, therefore please should you find any grammar or spelling errors, let me know via PM and I'll try an change those as soon as possible. Reviews are more than welcome and should someone be able to help me with a cover picture I would be for ever grateful :)


	2. Requesting help

**AN: ****Sorry for the long wait – live is busy with work and family.**

**Please note in this chapter we will have some talk about the alternative universe were Danny is coming from. I know that the heroes from DC have encountered parallel dimensions before. I do make a differences between "Universe" to "Dimension" . However, for the moment go with the explanation as it is, I will talk more in depth about this in a later chapter. That goes also for the "Energy theory" from CW from the Auction. For any question about these two, feel free to PM me.**

**As before, should you find any grammar or spelling error, please let me know them in a PM too, I'm not native English and still have a lot to learn.**

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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**_Chapter 2: Requesting help_**

The teleport plate radiated a bright white light, forming a human size pillar. For a brief moment the light was so vivid that you had to close your eyes if you looked straight into it, to avoid the loss of your eyesight. Just as quick is had appeared it died down and the light pillar was replaced by a person, a female human to be exact.

In a blink of an eye the remarkably good looking blonde woman had been transported thousands of kilometers, from a location on the surface of the earth to the orbital space station called "The Watchtower", the unofficial headquarter of the Justice League.

The woman was dressed in a black leotard under a close-fitted black leather jacket. Her legs were covered in translucent fish stocking tights and ankle boots which matched the material and colour of her top. Her golden blonde hair cascaded in waves down to the middle of her back, creating a shining halo around her beautiful face. If you were perceptive enough you could make out the thin lines around the edges of her sparkling blue eyes, the mean look in her eyes was just a façade as her full red lips showed that she usually enjoyed a good laugh.

Waiting for the beauty was Batman, his long cloak over his shoulders neatly closed. With a sharp nod he welcomed her: "Good to see you Black Canary."

One hand on her hip, she granted him one of her dazzling smiles, dismissing the glare from her eyes: "Good to see you too, Bats."

He was as always the professional, turned around and walked down a path that lead away from the teleportation area and opened up into a wide hallway. The heroine didn't need a spoken invitation as she followed suit.

"So what can I do for you? Your call had been very short on information." She asked after a few minutes of walking.

The dark and light swallowing material of his cloak parted and one hand came out holing a grey manila folder. "I need your help."

His voice, not as emotionless as typical for him surprised BC. Batman was worried; asking for help was unusual of him too. Changing her demeanour to a more professional one, she nodded and took hold of the offered documents.

Two photos greeted her on the inside of the folder, both showing the features of two young men, teenagers around 15 or 16 years of age.

The first one on the left picture had raven black hair and beautiful arctic blue eyes that were holding a deep knowledge and sorrow that made him look much older. A frown on his face also showed that he wasn't fond about the photo been taking, or the person taking it. There was not much to see from his body, but the little she could were small shoulders on a lean frame. She also made note that he was dressed in hospital garments.

The boy in the other picture had snow white hair that holds the same quality as freshly fallen snow. In contrast to that, his eyes that glowed in a remarkable out-worldly green looked haunted and wary. The photo didn't show it clearly, but Dinah Lance aka Black Canary, noticed a light glow surrounding the whole body that was only partial visible in the picture. What she could see from his torso was that he was outfitted with a black and white Hazmat suit with a symbol on his chest, forming a P outlined by a white D.

His facials features were stern and if her intuition was right, his eyes were holding the memory of too many fight, a seasoned warrior, much older as a first glance made believe.

It took her five seconds and a double take to realise, that the pictures didn't show two teenagers but actually one. Reading the information following the pictures in the folder, she looked up: "Phantom? I've never heard from a hero or villain with that name before."

"Because he isn't from here" explained the dark crusader "Read on." They had stopped in an empty corridor and he was leaning against the wall arms crossed, waiting for her to continue, while she studied the information through fully.

"Alternative universe, that's a new one." She remarked, sending Bats a short smile. The next part made her wince. Her voice sadly and full off concern she asked: "How is he holding up?"

Avoiding the questionable glare, Batman stared to the side. "Not good, that's why I called you."

"Has J'onn tried talking with him, or Clark? Both had similar experience with Krypton and Mars." Dinah supported.

Batman frowned and sighed, shaking his head he explained: "No they have not, that is another issue. He is particularly wary in J'onns presence, as if he expects an attack from him any given moment and Clark," he took a deep breath letting the air out in a second sigh. Looking in the distance without focusing on anything particular he continued, "Ever since Danny was fit enough to leave his bed, he is avoiding Clark as if he was the plague."

Dinah raised one eyebrow, closely watching her friend and his reaction: "Any idea why?"

Bruce shrugged sadly with his shoulders. His body language displayed the struggle he had to confine to her, even as one of his few close friends. He knew this situation was out of his expertise and she was the best available choice in this case. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Has he talked with anybody, at all?"

"He spoke a little bit with Robin and he will answer questions if you ask kindly and nothing to personal. After Robin had to go back, he was mostly keeping himself secluded and on a safe distant to everyone."

"Hm" voiced the heroine, thinking about the situation and the many holes in the information: "There is no last name on the sheet or a list of his powers, why?" pointing this flaw out.

"He said that this universe is holding to many similarities to his own and should his family still be alive, he does not wish for us to investigate them to get more information about him. They have done nothing wrong and therefore don't deserve to be prosecuted. Once we have decided what to do with him and if he is a danger to the world or not he promised to tell us.

"We took his finger prints and started a search using the pictures you are holding, but nothing came up so far.

"To his powers, we only know the ones he has displayed so far and J'onn had seen some memories when he touched the time medallion from there. We know he is able to fly and has a variety of attacks using his energy. We still don't know what his second half is or what other powers he might possess" Batman explained, leaving his position by the wall.

Closing the file in her hands Black Canary looked up. "You should have called me sooner," sending Bruce a pointed glare and hitting him with the folder on his arm.

He shrugged it off; he had received way too many of these glances in his years as dark knight to start counting now and took the file out of her hands.

"Where can I find him?"

"I will bring you to him," offered Bruce. "He is most of the time in the break area next to the canteen sitting in the same spot, looking at the stars." Both walked down the corridor next to each other. "He always stays there until some of the personnel shoos him away. Then he goes to bed for a few hours, before he is awaken by nightmares and he goes back to his spot."

"Nightmares too?" the blond grimaced, "Though it is not surprising."

Batman stopped in his track and held Black Canary on her arm. "One more thing, if you could get him to eat..." The end of the sentence remained unspoken.

"He doesn't eat? Bruce!" shaking her head she walked off into the nearby canteen, leaving him behind. She took a bottle of water out of the fridge and an apple and stalked back. The dark knight waited for her return before they continued walking towards the break area.

The room was open and wide, several small island with plants invited heroes and personnel to take a break from their work and rest. One wall of the room had been replaced with a big window that allowed everyone to enjoy the amazing view into the endless darkness that was spotted with a myriad of tiny white specks.

On the far end corner, half hidden behind some green plants, Black Canary could see something white. Stepping closer and leaving Batman behind at the same time, she recognized the white spot as Phantoms head, barely peeking out behind his selected cover.

Leaning his back against the wooden frame from the plant island, he had one leg pulled up. Holding it in place by hugging it with his arms and close to his chest, resting his chin on the bend knee, the other leg was laying straight out. From the direction she was approaching him she could see his green eyes were glazed over starring into the deep black in front of him. He was wearing the black and white hazmat suit from the photograph and, as she previously thought when she first saw his picture, she confirmed the constant white glow that surrounded the body of the boy.

Slowly walking closer the blonde allowed him to notice her first, to not surprise or even maybe frighten him with her presence. In the end her caution was unnecessary, when she was at a seven meter point, his head perked up and two glowing green orbs focused on her. The haunting eyes hold her in a strange lock that she could not escape, while she was evaluated and judged on who she was and if she was a threat to him. After what felt like an eternity he had come to a decision and turned again towards the open space before him.

Dinah let her breath out, she had involuntary hold back. Icy spider webs were crawling over her skin, the unearthly green eyes held so much pain and emotion and she needed all her willpower not to shudder. Worried that this could only hurt his feelings, something she wished to avoid under all circumstances.

With his unspoken approval the blonde stepped closer. At two meters she cleared her throat and spoke "Hi, your name is Danny, right? Or do you prefer Phantom in this form?"

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**AN: Again not much of Danny in this chapter – I'm sorry – the next chapter however (my longest for this story yet) will have a lot more of him. Stay tuned, I will update again as soon as I can. **

**A big thanks for all the amazing reviews I have received from my readers. They are my light on gloomy days and help me to stay motivated. **

**Just to let you know, I'm working on chapter 6/7 – adding an extra scene as a reward for my Beta reader (you are amazing, just so you know) - so should there be someone, you like to see in particular, please let me know and I will see if he/she gets a cameo, no promises though (Characters of both **universe are allowed).****


	3. The talk

_**AN: Today - and with great pleasure, I present you a new chapter. Sorry it took so long, but my work schedule does not allow regular updates. However I hope you will enjoy this chapter**_

_**Should you see any spelling or grammar error, please let me know in a PM, English is not my native language and I still have a lot to improve.**_

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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**_Chapter 3: The talk_**

His head raised a little as he carefully eyed the offered drink. "Batman sent you." It was not a question, but she confirmed it with a nod. Watching her reaction with suspicion he took the bottle with one hand.

The blond heroine also held out the apple.

Danny frowned: "I'm not hungry."

"You can either take the apple, or we might have to hook you up to the IV again." Her voice was soft, but didn't leave much room for objection. She also counted on the unwritten but universal law that all teenagers - and apparently almost every hero (she knew) - shared the same dislike of needles or the infirmary in total. Danny scowled, and as she saw his eyes contracted for a second she knew, he defiantly held no love for either. In the end, his other arm came over and picked the fruit from her hand.

"… I don't need so much to eat," he said in a low voice turning towards the window once again, mumbling the second part, "at least not in this form."

He had thought he was not overheard, however Dinah had. "What do you mean is there something special that you need to survive?"

Inside his head he winced, not ready to reveal his secrets to anybody just yet. However, her presence had felt very familiar to him. So much in fact that for a brief moment, he had thought it was his sister who had come up to him. When she started to question him, it was even more obvious, and he wished for something from his home to help him, so badly that he decided to give her some of his trust, at least for the time being.

By taking a sip out of the bottle, Danny was stalling for time. He didn't know how to explain the needs from his ghost half without giving away too much or frightening her in the process. If she was not immediately disgusted by his feeding habits and she would outright hate him for this. None of those were feelings he could stand at the moment.

Watching him closely, Dinah saw him nervously chewing on his bottom lip. His demeanour indicated that whatever he was about to say was something she might not like to hear, and he was obviously insecure about how she would take it. To break the ice, she sat down on the wooden frame of the plant island in what she hoped was a comfortable distance, to him but not too far away too. "By the way, my name is Black Canary." She introduced herself, beaming at him with a gentle smile.

The young halfa cocked his head and studied her a second time. Finally coming to a decision he answered. "You have read the information Batman has collected on me?"

"Yes," She didn't see a reason to lie about this.

"Then you know my second half is based on energy and not on carbon like a regular human." A quiet yes and a nod was her response. "Those beings or creatures gain sustenance from different kind of energy. One is the food growing in their own dimension. It is ... was," he corrected himself, "the flipside of the human world in my universe." Danny paused for a moment. The memory of his world was still fresh in his mind, and the knowledge that there was no return hurt. He took another gulp from the water bottle and had to swallow a few times until the lump in his throat disappeared and he could speak again.

"The food there was their own kind of manifested energy. In other words, they didn't need much to maintain." Placing the bottle of water on the floor next to his leg, Danny now had a hand free, and wove his fingers through his stark white hair. Now came the difficult part. "A suitable alternative in the human world however..." he stopped, in loss for words thinking frantically for the right way to carry on.

"Does it involve killing a person?" Dinah asked carefully, as she noticed his continued struggles, while she remembered that he himself had told them that his second half had been considered to be dangerous in his world.

"What?" The boy looked at her surprised, shaking his head disgusted. "No!" Cocking his head: "Well ... there maybe had been accidents over the time, but killing a human on purpose was persecuted by their own kind of government." He spoke in haste, remembering Vortex and the Observer that had held trial over him once he had returned him into their custody.

Reaching out with her arm, she laid her hand on his shoulder: "Then I don't know what you are afraid of." squeezing it in reassurance, not even flinching back at his unusual low body temperature "I promise I won't judge you."

Feeling her touch through his protective suit, he was grateful for her words and acknowledged her effort with a short nod, unable to force himself to a smile. Thinking that the blond would maybe change her opinion about this later on, with a deep sigh he spoke softly: "Emotion."

Black Canary blinked in surprise: "Emotion?" she questioned confused, how would something, or someone feed on emotion.

"Every person constantly emits emotion. They don't feel that they are doing so, nor can they see it. An empath, however, would be able to read those from a person." Avoiding her gaze he focused on the dark emptiness in front of him.

"How?" the blond asked eagerly interested to learn more.

Danny shrugged: "I'm not 100% sure on how it works. I had no need to purposely ... uh ... feed this way before the war. I do know it has to be a strong emotional response."

"What do you mean?" she asked cocking her head to the left, trying to understand the concept of his words. "And how do you measure an emotion in strength?"

"Did you ever feel this tingly feeling in your stomach when a newborn baby smiled at you?" He looked at her to see her answer. "Sure." She confirmed. "The first few laughs are the strongest emotion at this age." He continued: "After that it becomes more and more difficult to have a strong emotional response."

"Does it have to be a special emotion or is one strong enough sufficient?" She asked.

"Depends on the g... creature." correcting himself midway almost blabbering out the secret to his second half. "Over time some have developed ... uh ... special preferences, but the most common is..." He let out another sigh, preparing himself for a negative response to his words, twirling the apple absentmindedly in his hand.

"I won't judge you, I promise." She reassured him a second time with a gentle smile, as she noticed that he still was afraid of her reaction.

Danny closed his eyes mentally wishing to have it done and over with: "Fear," He cringed, opening his eyes just a little to look at her for a brief moment before he continued, "The easiest accessible emotion, which is also strong enough, is fear. Just appearing out of nowhere next to someone will provide a strong emotional response from almost everyone."

Dinah thought about the new information, it was easy to see that Danny was very uncomfortable with her knowing about this. At the same time she could hardly imagine him scaring people. Then there was also the mystery if he was _"fed up"_ as he mentioned before, where did this emotional energy come from. She had not heard of any unusual occurrences on the space station, especially as he was avoiding direct contact with others as much as possible. That brought her to the conclusion that he was one of the few who had "s_pecial preferences_". He perhaps was also able to sustain from his own emotion, as he was partly human after all. The second thing that puzzled her was he had said he didn't need to "_feed_" this way until the war. Had his preferences changed, or was there another reason behind it - but this was something she would ask him later.

"What other emotions are suitable?" she asked with a smile, her voice friendly, ending the growing silence between them.

Danny was surprised, he had felt her confusion - even a brief moment of sympathy, but no hate or other negative emotion he had expected to come up with his revelation. At her question, which was not the slightest bit accusing, but rather from someone whose curiosity had sparked, he blinked confused. She had just accepted him, just like his sister has done it. The tension in his body was released and the white glow around him became stronger, as well as the light in his eyes.

"Well there are ... were," he corrected himself and the light surrounding him dimmed a little, "many different - the good kind but also the bad. Penelope as example preferred misery. She had been a psychologist at one point in the past and would point out all our insecurity's and any kind of flaws in you during the fight." He shuddered with the memory of the few encounters they had over time. "She was one of the worst enemies I ever had to face, draining me almost so badly I was no longer able to fight. My friends saved me more than once from her."

"So she was one of the bad, and the good ones?" Black Canary asked with a smile, hoping to learn more from him and his world.

He thought about it, besides him there had not been many good ghosts that were coming into the human realm by free will. It took him a few moments of consideration before he came up with a good example: "Young Blood," a small smirk lifted the corner of his lips, just for a second, but it was there, "He was something special, he favoured the emotions from children." Now he could feel her concern that arose with this, so he quickly carried on before she could say anything. "He preferred happiness, and he made them laugh, to get it. We didn't get along at first, but in the war he was a valued ally, as he could only be seen by certain people."

Her mood lifted with his explanation: "Oh, how so?" she wanted to know more, secretly overjoyed that he decided to talk.

"He was a child himself and so could only be seen by people with a childlike mind." He remembered the time when they still had been enemies and Jazz though he finally had lost it, because he could see him and she not.

The blonde heroine looked at him confused: "Why was a child helping in the war?" The glow around him diminished and almost vanished, reflecting the change in his mood, established Dinah about the change.

With horror Danny notices that he had trapped himself. How could he explain that Young Blood was probably much older than him, without revealing that he had been a ghost and therefore the spirit of a deceased person.

After a few seconds to think over a answer he replied: "Uh... it's difficult to explain this at the moment," scratching his neck in a nervous habit. "Although he was still in the body of a child, he was much older than me." coming up with a response, but avoiding a direct answer to her question.

Giving his words a moment to sink in, Dinah noticed how nervous he had gotten about her question. Storing this information and the list of further question regarding this Young Blood for a different time, she came back to her other main question that hold her interest. "Okay and what is your preferred emotion?" She switched to a hopefully more comfortable topic.

"Everything positive." He mumbled.

She was right. "I can imagine it isn't so easy to get enough energy from happiness if you say it has to be very strong emotion to begin with." She smiled.

"I don't need much. My status as halfa gives me the option to recharge on small amounts over time, as I don't rely on the energy when I'm in my human form. Only after a big fight or a serious injury I have the deliberate need to ... feed ... this way, so to speak." He confessed.

"But the whole thing is not invasive correct?" she wanted to know, just to be sure. He nodded and confirmed her thoughts. "Then I don't know what you are afraid of. I understand that because of others and their way of emotional energy preferences that your second half was seen as bad, but I can't see that evil in you."

This however abruptly soured his mood: "You don't know me..." he whispered bitterly. Before Dinah could ask what he had meant, he turned towards her: "What are you doing with the information now? Handing them to Batman?"

He was testing her trust, she noticed, "No, I don't see a reason for them to know, if you are not okay with it."

His eyes darkened for a second, then he turned his gaze back to the black emptiness. His emotion hidden behind a mask, too professional for a teenager, in her opinion. "However," she continued, while he watched her from the corner of his eyes, his body unmoving. "If you are in danger and they need to know this, to save you I'll not hold back."

Tilting his head, Danny thought about her words. True, he didn't like it much, but could understand her point. Therefore after a few moments he gave his reluctant approval, and took a bite out of the apple he was still holding.

They sat there in silence for a while, he munching on the fruit, and she following his example. Together they admired the beautiful stars on the black canvas called space before them, both getting more comfortable with the other around.

Out of the blue, Danny suddenly shuddered and jumped to his feet. He turned to his left checking the elevator on the far end wall of the break area. Above the two steel doors a digital display showed a number, declining down from 10, the operation level, and that fast.

"Danny?" Black Canary startled by him had also rose from her place.

Not leaving the downwards counting numbers out of his sight he answered: "I have to go" a short glance was directed to the blond. "Thanks for the talk" he made two steps then stopped, "and for the apple." In a fast pace he walked away to the next exit, leaving her no time to reply and was gone the second the doors to the elevator opened.

Staring at the man in red and blue who had stepped out of the lift, Dinah frowned and marched up to her long time friend.

When he saw her he smiled, but soon noticed the dark glare she was objecting him with. The Kryptonian waved and opened his mouth to greet the blond. She however poked him with her finger in the chest. "What are you doing here?"

Clark cocked his head in confusion. "I ..."

Batman suddenly appeared next to them, while the man of steel struggled to understand her hostility.

"I got him to talk," she fumed, "he even eat the damn apple and then you had to come down here."

"What did he say?" interrupted Bruce, before the other man could come up with a response.

"Nothing you need to know at the moment." She replied with a small warning swinging in the tone of her voice while she turned more towards the Dark Knight.

"What are you talking about?" asked an annoyed Superman, who had given up on understanding the situation by himself.

"Phantom" Exclaimed both in union and both sending him an angry glare.

Tilting her head Dinah stared at the man of steel: "You know he could sense you the moment you stepped in the lift."

Reflecting on the information Batman was scratching his chin. "Any hint on what his other half might be?"

Black Canary crossed her arms over her chest: "I have to gain his trust. Therefore even if he had said anything, I wouldn't tell you - only with his consent."

Stepping in before Bruce could further interrogate their friend, Clark added: "She is right Bruce. He asked for our judgement to be without prejudices."

The billionaire narrowed his eyes in dislike: "Fine" he remarked, then turned around and left.

"He sure doesn't like to not know." Dinah smirked, shaking her head.

Clark agreed in silence with a short nod, after a moment he asked: "Did you find out why he is avoiding me? Or is this something you can't talk about either?" concern in his voice.

She shrugged with her shoulders: "I might have an idea, but can't say it for sure. Only that maybe it's not who you are, and more about what and where you come from."

"Hm, that's good and bad. Good I didn't offend him with anything accidently, but bad as I can't really change my heritage."

"I think he just needs time to adjust." The blond offered her sympathy with a smile.

He agreed again sharing her smile: "Okay if you need anything," The leader of the Justice League offered.

"… I know where to find you, thanks." She finished his sentence.

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**AN: I wish everyone happy holidays and if anyone can guess why Danny is avoiding Superman he or she gets a cookie =)**

**Just to let you know, there will be no more updates this year(sorry about that), as my Beta(s) are to busy and I simply can't post a chapter without a beta (I'm terrible when it comes to the correct times ... I working on that... promise)**

**In addition, please have a look at my profile, there I will update my progress in the stories and also I add three challenges (I didn't know where to put them else) please let me know if you are interested if one of these. More plot bunnies are running haywire in my mind so I might add more in the future.**


	4. Decision in the time of war

**AN: Happy New Year!**

**As promised a new chapter to the new year ^^ thanks to the amazing help from "Scheffelman" and "The cool mystery" who beta this chapter, I could upload much sooner then anticipated. **

**Reminder: **_**Should you see any spelling or grammar error, please let me know in a PM, English is not my native language and I still have a lot to improve.**_

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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**Chapter 4: Decision in the time of war**

"We need to talk!" bellowed Tucker pushing the heavy reinforced security door open with enough force, as he entered, that it almost hit the back wall.

The room, the dark skinned teen came into was bare from any window or other nature source of light, for it was under ground. Only two small electrical lights directly over the table on the end of the oblong room illuminated the interior, just barely enough for his feeble human eyes to see. The walls right, left and center were a bleak concrete grey and beside the conference table on the far end the only furniture were some plastic chairs lined up along the side wall.

Danny still as Phantom was the only occupant left in the room, standing by the head end of the long table hunched over maps and other material scattered over the desk. "Hm?" he mumbled, his eyes never leaving the things before him, studying them thorough fully.

Coming up behind Tucker, were Jazz and Sam. Everyone who knew the three from their time at Casper High would not be able to recognize the carefree teenagers they once were in the now battled hardened warriors that stood in the entry. All three human had changed in so many ways that they scarcely resembled their personas before Dan had first attacked and annihilated their home town Amity Park. Eight months of war left his mark on everyone who is forced to take part in it, especially on the mind of a young adult. But unlike many other children and teenagers in this time and world, those three could not hide behind an innocent mind, and therefore could not back out nor leave it to the adults to fight the maniac ghost and his army. For the reason that opposed to others, those three had something that was desperately needed in this war stricken time, experience with their enemy! As they had known of the threat that malicious ghosts posed to the human world ever since the day the Fenton Portal was opened, down in the basement laboratory of Jazz and Danny's parents and they had fought against those for many months before this war had even started.

All three wore now fitted combat boots, reinforced with green metal on toe and heel. Black cargo pants with several bags and a long sleeved shirt made from a tear resistant material protecting their fragile human body. A special designed version of the Specter-Deflector resting on their hips, limited to only three in the world. The special property to the ghost haunting gear, it allowed Danny to still touch them even when activated and visa versa, his ecto- energy signature stored inside. Each had a fully equipped gun holster on the both sides, with two ecto guns and an extra ghost peeler on the right that was combined with an additional wrist ray on the other arm.

The two girls had cut their hair short, to a length that it wouldn't fall into their eyes or could be used to hold them back. Both wore a headband, Jazz sporting the same teal one, she had before the violent war had started, that from Sam was purple matching her eyes perfectly. The purpose of this accessory only visible for the careful eye, hidden in the fabric was a communicator that linked all members of this exclusive team. Tucker had switched his once red beret to a light swallowing black in a common military style, matching the color from the rest of their clothing. He too had a communicator next to his ear, hidden inside his hat.

"Danny!" shouted the oldest of the three teens from the back, getting her brother finally to look up from the information before him, his once vivid acid green eyes tired and dull. She immediately noticed the dark shadows under his eyes and that the always present glow that surrounded him in his ghostly form was on an all time low. "When was the last time you've got some sleep" she asked one hand on her hip, with a hint of concern in her voice, "Or had something to eat?"

All three saw his body swaying from the sudden movement, before he caught himself with his right hand on the table, shaking his head, dispensing the fatigue and dizziness from his mind he replied: "I'm fine" avoiding the three pairs of apprehensive eyes, while his voice was barely audible.

"You are not!" bellowed Sam, marching straight up to him. When she grabbed him by his arm he flinched violently from the close personal contact - a reaction to none of them was longer staggered - and guided him to a set of chairs, forcing him to sit down. "Danny you are still human, you need sleep and you need to eat as well," purple eyes glaring at him, while keeping her hands longer around his biceps as necessary, succumbing to her own personal need to stay in physical touch with him and to ensure her troubled mind that he was still there.

He frowned and refused to answer, turning his head to the side to avoid her eyes and crossing his arms before his chest, showing clearly with his body language that he thought different.

Sam just got more aggravated, shaking him on the shoulder she yelled at him in rage: "You are not dead!"

The young hybrid jumped up, effortless brushing off her hold on him, his eyes narrowed, anger dangerous gathering in the out-worldly green orbs. His voice sharp and brisk mirroring, the dramatic change of temperature in the room, down to an almost painful freezing cold to the exposed skin: "Is that what you want to talk about?" a unhidden threat looming behind the words, daring her and the others in the room to confirm just that.

Jazz stepped up to Sam who was trembling in fury, and covered her mouth with a hand, stopping her to push the talk further in this direction. She knew as his sister, that this had always been a very tender point for her little baby brother Danny, who was at the moment under a whole new level of pressure because of the war and the responsibility it brought him with being the only one to pose a real challenge to Dan.

"No!" cut Tucker in, turning the focus from his half ghost friend and brother towards him and away from the infuriated Sam. Before he could be interrupted Tucker continued, fully aware about the new trouble he would summon with it. "It's about New York."

Danny recoiled violently as if an unseen force had hit him in the chest. All anger in his eyes and demeanour disappeared and was replaced with self-load and guilt. The freezing cold lessens and became a more bearable temperature.

Tucker continued his voice cold and bare all emotion, as he knew what he had to say was crucial for his friend to comprehend. "You almost died there, without Wulf…"

"Wulf is gone…" whispered Danny turning around, facing the grey wall his back now to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. The stinging in his eyes threatens to overwhelm him and his hands were shaking, showing the inner fight for control, he was slowly losing. Albeit he had made a promise on the ruins of Amity Park and Danny had to remind himself about this promise. Breathing deeply in and out he fought to stay in check over his emotional turmoil, reciting the words in his head like a mantra: "_I will not cry a tear until Dan is gone for good and this war between ghost and human is over_."

"Wulf is gone …" Danny repeated out loud after a minute, while pushing away the emotion that were about to drown him, covering it with a layer of ice, like he had done numerous times before, at the same time as he buried half of his face in one hand, "And it was my fault."

"No!" shouted Jazz.

Her loud cry made Danny flinch again and he involuntarily did a step away from it, to ingrained was this behavior of flight or fight already. First from fighting the ghost of his hometown when he was only 14 and still in the freshman year, over the time it had become more prominent with the open war between the ghost zone and human realm.

"Enough with this crap!" she shouted in anger, "It was not your fault." Leaving her place next to Sam, she walked up to her little brother, turning him around on the shoulder and then took hold of his arms just below the wrists. "You will listen to me Daniel James Fenton!"

Called by his full name, the younger sibling hold still, only his eyes showing the emotional chaos that still raged inside of him.

"Dan is not you, and You. Are. Not. **DAN**!" She let out a deep sigh, breathing out some of the build up fury that clouded her mind. "Amity fell by Dan's hand, _He_ started this pointless war between the two worlds, _He_ killed our parents," she looked him deep into the dull green eyes that had once held the fire of a fierce fighter in it. Locking him in place while letting go of his arms, she caress his face between both of her hands. "And _He_ was the one who ended Wulf."

"He died because of me." Danny whispered the guilt in his heart almost tearing him apart.

"No," she repeated softly, tears glistening in her eyes, knowing about her brother's promise not to show his until the war was over, "Wulf died for you, not because and he did it for all of us."

"And that's why we will not join you in Washington." stated Tucker, placing one hand on Danny's left shoulder, squeezing it slightly.

Danny freed his face from the hold of his sister and looked confused towards his brother in all but blood. "What do you mean, you will not join me? Are you leaving me?" the end of his question barely audible yet hardly hiding the fear behind the words.

"Dan knows you, sometimes even better than you yourself." interrupted Sam, having her anger under control again, turning the attention from the others to her.

"And He knows that we are your weak point." completed Tucker.

Danny overcame the sudden feeling that the three had talked about this before. He cocked his head slightly, waiting to see in which direction his friends where going.

"The incident in New York is proof to that." took Sam over again. "With us on the battlefield you will always split your attention, to protect or to aid us if necessary." She let out a deep sigh "and that's why we," she waved her hand to include his sister and Tucker, "will not join you for the fight for the capitol."

The white hair flow in the almost hysterical shake of Danny's head: "No, no, no he will expect this and come for you. I'll not leave you unprotected…" he spoke panic-stricken his body shaking in fear. "We won't be." Interrupted Jazz his rambling, resting her right hand on his shoulder, adding as much confidence she could come up with to her words.

"Huh?" Danny was puzzled, the onslaught of emotions surrounding him started to overwhelm him, adding even more to his confusion.

"We will take watch over the portal, it is protected by Tuckers new improved ghost shield." explained Sam. Turning his head to her, Danny narrowed his eyes: "I don't…" "Think about it. So far you had Fight Knight protecting Vlad's old portal, right? He is by far your strongest ally."

He confirmed her words with a nod: "Yes, and that's why I have him guard it. Who knows what happens, if Dan would get his hands on the portal," shaking his head, "Up to now, Dan's own ability to open a gateway to the ghost-zone and back is the only limitation for the size of his army when he is fighting us."

With a confident smile Tucker grinned at his surrogate family: "Right, but with my new and improved ghost shield it will be perfectly safe from any ghost attack and only us four can open it from either side. Remember all energy one could put up against the shield will only increase its power, further reinforcing it."

"I still don't like it." objected Danny crossing arms before his chest.

This was the beginning of a very long talk and in the end the three human friends convinced the still reluctant halfa of the plan. The day ended with all four sharing dinner between them, comforting each other with their presence and in the morning of the next day they departed. Tucker, Jazz and Sam where to keep the Portal safe in its secret location. While Danny would face Dan in Washington, together with the human and ghost forces he had allied as their leader and Fright Knight on his side.

None of them could have foretold that betrayal would come from the very people that they fought so hard to protect from Dan in this war.

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Woken up from the memories about the last evening they spend together in their makeshift family, Danny tumbled out of his bed and run into the bathroom, that was attached to his temporary living accommodation. First he heaved the little he had eaten in the bowl before he stumbled into the shower, holding himself up while leaning heavy against the wall. Unable to stand any longer on his trembling legs he sat down on the floor in the shower. Steaming hot water falling drenched him as Danny finally succumbed to the emotional onslaught and cried for the first time in months. In the past he had managed to stable his heartache and with that all the pent up emotions by freezing it over and over again. But something on the evening before, had hit the ice barrier and in the night it had finally crumbled, leaving him alone to deal with too many emotions at once.

He cried, salty tears mixing with the hot water, hard sob's shaking his frame, the memories and feelings pulling him deeper, drowning him in there depths and stealing his breath. Out of instinct and desperate for control Danny called for his ice powers, fighting to overcome the tidal like waves of faces and words, from people he had let die...

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**AN: Sorry for the cliffy, but this was the best point I could end this chapter :)**

**With the new year comes a new shift and other stuff in my private life that will prevent me to write. Once the changes have settled I should be able to update again. **

**To my question from the last time, so far only Hitomi-Tama came close - so the cookie goes to her - the correct answer will have to wait another chapter :D which will hopefully be ready by the end of the month.**


	5. Icebound

**AN: Thanks for the amazing reviews, they keep me going, even with the constant stress of life... I do hope you will enjoy this chapter and as a small reminder; I'm not native English therefore I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes. **

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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**Chapter 5: Icebound**

Barry Allen aka The Flash and the Martian Manhunter were standing, or in Barry's case sitting, in front of several surveillance monitors. The fastest man alive, reclined in a chair his feet on the desk and arms behind his head, leaving the green skinned humanoid alien to keep a watchful eye on the events happening on Earth.

The red speedster was currently loudly relating one of his many stories featuring him saving a damsel in distress, when a blinking light to his right on the controls in charge of the space station caught his attention. "Hey J'onn, what's that?" pointing at the signal.

The co-founder of the Justice League turned around and looked at the flashing signal, stepping closer. With a frown on his face, he started typing on the keyboard in front of him. Seconds later, the big screen positioned directly above the console, showed the inside to one of the numerous rooms on the Watchtower. At first nothing in the room looked unusual from the common interior until both heroes noticed the almost clear white and blue barrier over of the bathroom door, their normal grey color barely shining through.

J'onn pressed another key on the console a short tone confirmed the successful connection. "Phantom?" Manhunter spoke into the microphone, no reaction on the other end of the line. Flash rose from his chair to stand right next to him. "Phantom are you there?" he repeated, again they couldn't see or hear anything from the room. He closed his eyes, re-establishing the mind connection to Batman in an instant: "_Bruce_?"

The dark Knight currently sitting with Green Arrow on a table at the canteen stopped the fork with some pasta on the way to his mouth. "_Yes_?" he answered the word only mentally transmitted and not spoken out loud.

"_It's Phantom, the temperature of his room dropped dramatically to under -20°. I can't see him or anyone on the video feed inside his quarters, security showed, he entered but has not left."_ the alien related the facts.

Batman cocked his head in processing the information, placing his cutlery on his plate the food forgotten: "_Your call?"_

_"He does not answer via intercom and the door to the bathroom seems to be frozen solid with a dense layer of ice."_

The detective nodded to himself: "_Send a medic team I'm on my way."_ Bruce rose from the chair he was sitting on.

"Batman?" asked his table companion, who had not been included in the mental dialog between the Dark Knight and Martian Manhunter.

"Trouble with our guest," Bruce stated the facts in one sentence.

"May I join? I had yet not the chance to meet the boy in person." placing his own cutlery on his plate as well.

As the dark clothed man didn't object, Oliver Queen alias Green Arrow to rose from the chair and followed. Using the still open mind connection Bruce spoke again: "_J'onn get a hold of Black Canary and send her as well."_ "_Understood_." confirmed Manhunter.

The two human heroes were the first to arrive at the guest quarters. Next to the door to the private room as part of the wall was a key pad. Without hesitation Bruce typed in a overwrite code and the door opened immediately with an audible hiss. "Wow, who invited Mr. Freeze to the Party?" quipped the blond archer as a wall of cold air washed over them.

Not bothering with a comment, to the for him rhetorical question, Bruce ventured into the room. The cold was almost tangible and hurt the few areas that were exposed to the cold air not protected by his suit. With one quick scan through the room the detective turned towards the bathroom door.

Green Arrow hesitated for a second, before he too stepped inside. The room was similar to most of the personal quarters for guests and the few selected visitors they allowed access to the space station. Four meters long and around three meters wide, a comfortable bed was placed in the far corner opposite to the entry. A table with a matching pair of chairs was placed to his left next to a set of drawers to create a less empty feeling of the room and providing storage room for personal belongings for whoever stayed here.

Only a few items indicated that someone had taken residence in those rooms, a couple books almost exclusively related to the history of the world, some dirty clothing on the floor next to the bathroom door, an unmade bed with an entangled mess of blankets. Oliver's own experience from the past told him about this little detail, that the sleeper had a troubled night with bad nightmares behind him. All this still didn't explain the freezing cold in the room, nor the thick layer of ice that completely covered the wall to the bathroom. The blond archer saw how Batman, aka Bruce, examined the unnatural ice, hovering his right hand over the ice, yet careful not to touch it.

From Bruce point of view and on how the light was reflecting in the frozen water he could tell that this was no ordinary ice. Imbedded between the molecules was something unknown, giving it a slightly green shine, the same color Bruce connected with the energy Phantom was using. "Danny?" he shouted, hoping to get a response from the young man, while back in his head another more dreaded idea came up, why the troubled teen would not be able to reply. Pushing the terrible thought away he pulled a small but powerful blow torch out from his utility belt.

"You don't think he is trying to hurt himself, do you?" asked Oliver to his dark clothed friend, his voice laced with heart clenching anxiety.

Bruce stopped for a brief moment, hearing his own depressing thought voiced out loud made him shudder inside. Before he could dispel this perception, someone else beat him to the answer. "No!" stated a strong female voice from the door. Dinah aka Black Canary and J'onn J'onzz aka the Martian Manhunter entered the room. Behind them they could also see the medic team arriving, with two doctors and one nurse.

"Are you sure?" the green dressed archer asked, searching for her eyes. She did not waver under his gaze and confirmed her previous statement with a short determined nod.

"This ice or whatever this is appears to be heat resistance." Spoke Batman disbanding the sinister tension in the room. "Can you phase through it?" he asked J'onn while he deactivated the flame on his tool.

The alien studied the barrier carefully; he became more see through and raised a hand to touch the ice. The moment he made contact with the material he pulled back, a painful hiss escaping his lips, cradling his injured hand in his chest.

"J'onn?" Dinah asked worried on his reaction.

"I'm fine." He reassured the others still looking at his hand, it didn't show a open wound but he could still feel the burn, surprisingly it was not a cold or heat burn, but rather an emotion that had lighten up his pain receptors. Although he could not explain how "guilt" was able to manifest as energy and be powerful enough to pass through his skin.

Her suspicion growing Dinah asked carefully "What did you feel?"

Bruce gave her a puzzled look; promptly coming to the conclusion that the blond suspected something.

"Guilt" replied Manhunter finally loosen his gaze from his hand, and looking her in the eyes. For the fraction of a second he could see her eyes widen, he knew then this information meant something to her.

"And how are we going to get in there now?" brought Green Arrow the other three heroes in the room back to the issue at hand.

Simultaneity Dinah and Batman said: "Superman"

"You two know something," stated Oliver, not even questioning the fact, pointing a finger at the two.

J'onn, who had reacted immediately, lowered a hand from his left temple: "Superman is on the way." He had mentally contacted the man of steel, who was currently off duty and therefore would need a minute or two to arrive.

The blond singer and the dark haired billionaire looked at each other, each other trying to figure out what the other knew. Bruce narrowed his eyes and glared at the only woman in the room. "You first!" he ordered her to explain.

"There are polar opposites," Canary shrugged one sided, "when you bring it down to their energy. You said it yourself in Danny's file; he has an ice-core." Waving her hand over the ice barrier to empathize her words, "Superman is powered by the yellow sun we have here in our solar system. It's just a theory from your talk yesterday, but I wanted to ask Danny first before making any assumption." With another wave of her hand towards the dark knight, she asked with unspoken words that he should share now his thoughts too.

Batman nodded coming to a similar conclusion "More or less the same, with the addition that Superman's heat vision might be strong enough to penetrate the ice."

Before someone else could question further into the ideas of the two, a blue and red blur zoomed in the now crowded room. Suddenly several thing happens at once.

First was Superman who asked: "What..." only to be overheard from the second sound in the room, a loud crack following a rupture on the frozen solid door, from the bottom left corner to the top right. The third was scarcely noticeable, but it jerked all head's from the occupants in the room towards the bathroom door or more to what was behind it, a barely audible human wince.

"Was that ...?" inquired Clark from his friends.

Batman rushed to the door to check, leaving the others to explain. After a few short words the Kryptonian was filled in on the situation. "Superman," Bruce asked his friend, not leaving the door and the gap out of his sight, "could you try your heat vision to thaw the ice?"

"Sure."

The dark knight moved out of the way and the man of steel starred with a literally heated glare at the bathroom door and the ice that still hold a firm grip on it. A few moments later Clark stopped, sporting a frown on his face: "That's no normal ice." Even with the intense heat he was able to focus in his eyes, he had only gotten the corners of the gap to widen a little less than two feet.

Bruce didn't answer and again examined the door. "I think the gap is wide enough on both sides to phase through, J'onn?" The green alien from Mars nodded, making his body as small as possible before he became see-through, while prepared to pull back should the guilt burn him a second time. Except it didn't come and he pass the gap in the barrier into the attached bathroom without resistance.

The whole room was coated in at least five cm of ice, the only exception, was the inside of the half thawed door and J'onn didn't dare to touch the ground. His attention was drawn immediately to the closed shower doors, the only enclosure he could not directly inspect and the only place to hide from view. With a powerful push using an energy blast from his hand, the milky plastic followed the kinetic energy even if the ice itself refused to show any sight of breaking. Using his mental connection Manhunter informed the others: "_I found him._"

A sigh of relieve, both audible and via the connection, answered.

Before him on the ground lay the boy who was in the thought of the four heroes next door. What confused him was that Danny, although he was in the shower, was fully clothed in his black Hazmat suit he was seen wearing as Phantom. Positioned on the side, he had curled into a ball as to protect himself from some invisible threat the face hidden behind a curtain of white hair and his breathing laboured.

Carefully he approached the boy: "Daniel?" he asked, hoping for a reaction, his apprehension grew when the young man didn't respond.

No ice covered the halfa that he could see, so he reached out with his not gloved hand, repeating the previous question a second time: "Daniel?" touching him lightly on the shoulder. When again no answer came the Martian used a little more force and pushed the boy onto his back. J'onn quickly summarized, closed lids, but wild moving eyes behind it, being Phantom, and at the same time somehow unconscious, after Daniel had previous explained he would always turn back to his human form if he passed out; this was an attack on the mind of the young boy turning man.

Wasting no more precious time, he immediately picked the fragile looking body up bridal style. The door was still only partial unfrozen, and he could feel the head vision of Superman working on thawing the ice further. "_We're coming through._" He warned and the heat disbanded for them to allow them to pass.

The medical team, which had waited back by the entry of the room, rushed forward, as well as the other heroes. Before the green alien and founding member of the Justice League could place the boy on the bed Superman lifted his arm, effectively stopping every movement in the room.

"Something isn't right." His face cringed up as if he had to concentrate hard to focus. Everyone in the room had come to a still stand. After a few seconds intense listening Superman looked up with a shocked expression on his face: "I can't hear a heartbeat."

It took the collected group of heroes and medics a full second before they had overcome the shock of this particular information.

Danny was placed on the table, the books quickly pushed aside, instead of the bed, to allow the doctors enough access; one was immediately searching for a pulse while the next was checking for others vital signs.

Black Canary turned to their friends, as they now stood in the background: "Had he ever be in his Phantom form, while near you?"

Clark thought about this and the few encounters he had with the young boy that had been on the station for almost ten days now.

"No he has not." Provided Batman the answer, his eyes narrowed and lips a thin line his concern hidden under the mask.

"He didn't allow us any test on his Phantom form either." added J'onn, who hovered slightly over the ground, his eyes wandering to the busy group around the young boy on the table.

"So we don't know if this is not even his natural state." supported Dinah.

"How is that possible?" Clark questioned the others, "In his human form he has a heartbeat. We have all seen that. He can't just die when he transformed to his Phantom form." hiding away the raising apprehension with expertise, but his long time friends could easy hear it in his voice.

Dinah gasped, covering her mouth with a hand to quiet down her shocked sound. All three men stared at her. "What do you know?" asked Batman, making a half step closer to the blond. The woman had to force herself to move her eyes from the prone figure on the table to the man next to her. "What if he does? What if his second form, what if Phantom is ... dead ... and something similar ... to ... a ghost."

Green Arrow and the alien shook their head in denial: "Impossible, ghosts are incorporeal and can't take up a solid body, nevertheless merge permanently with a human host." stated Manhunter.

Batman looked thoughtful, reflecting all the collected information, his own experience with ghosts in the past where exactly like Manhunter described, however something about this idea made him think. "Aren't we all forgetting something?" He asked the group crossing his arms over the chest, "Danny is not from here, hell he is not even from this universe." Waving his hand into the direction of the unconscious halfa, "Who said that in his universe something like a ghost-human hybrid is not possible?"

"Doesn't that make him half dead?" stated Green Arrow adding his two cents in the mix. The other frowned at that idea. Scratching his chin Clark asked: "If we take his heartbeat out of the equation," waving his hand to empathize his words, "and that doesn't mean I believe a half-ghost half-human hybrid is possible, then what had happened?"

"An attack on his mind," surprised Manhunter with an explanation, "I can feel his mind barrier is weakening. Entering his mindscape would be possible now."

Taking all the pros and cons into account, Batman considered the option available to them. A minute later he called the medic team to stop and turned to the green alien, he was their best chance on helping the boy: "Do it!"

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**AN: **My apology for the slight cliffhanger in he end, and as always please no flames. Should you find spelling or grammar mistakes please let me know about them in a private note.

Before you all jump on me and ask why it was BC that discovered Danny is half ghost and not Batman, the reason is that she got Danny's slip up in chapter 3 and also connected the information in regards of Young Blood.

I was asked a couple of times now about Danielle, and if I plan to bring her into the _Adjust_ universe. Please know I love her as much as every character from DP, however she will not appear in this part of the story. Although I could think of a third part or a short epilogue with her included. More to that after the next chapter...

Please let me know what you think and keep an eye on my profile where I will add further challenges in the future :)


	6. Business meeting

**AN**: Sorry for the long wait, please see the AN at the end for a few important details.

I also apologize for any spelling or grammar error that is still left. I may repeat myself with it, but I'm not native English and I'm still struggling with the finer points of this language. If you see anything, please let me know in a private message and I will change it.

Beta reader: PercyJacksonLover14

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**_Chapter 6: Business meeting _**

Carelessly discarded garbage lingered in the corners from the industrial and commercial district on the outskirt of Metropolis. Cold wind blew away any lose items, creating this distinguished eerie sound of an abandoned area at night.

Though, tonight it wasn't as deserted as many other nights in the past. A lone man was walking with his dog down the narrow side alley, keeping to the shadows, created by the few still working light spread randomly across the street.

The man was tall, much taller than a regular person, towering over the overall mass with a proud 2m 20. That alone would discourage most of the thugs that were commonly known to those forsaken streets at night.

Adding more reason not to the mess with the man was his overall exterior. A pair of black combat boots, matching with the same color and style set of pants. His arms, by the size of thick robes you could find on intercontinental container ships, were unprotected by any fabric, as he most likely would burst through the material anyway.

The torso was clad in a black vest, which stretched tight from the recoiling muscle tissue underneath and was crossed by two thick leather belts that were hold together in the center with a matt silver clasp, in form of a skull. Both the vest and his pants had dozens of small and medium sized compartments, holding everything a man with his profession might needed. To top everything off, several weapon holster placed on strategic imported position, where lingered all over his body – many hidden and invisible for the untrained eye - and none of them were empty, holding a variety on weapons, from a combat knife and a Taser, to a modified Desert Eagle.

The visible skin had a deep tan, from someone who spent most of his time outside. His face was stern and emotionless. The sides of his cheeks were not shaved and displayed a three-day stubble, with a center goatee dyed in a bright green, matching the color of his hair. Or at least what was not shaved away and styled into an intimidating Mohawk.

A sharp whistle called the attention of the free roaming dog, if you could label the impressive creature with a simple term like that. Reassembling several different trades of breeds signify it to be a mud, but a second look, or in the eye of an expert "uncovered" the true beauty of the beast and the work behind it to breed canines with the goal to receive the displayed result.

Reaching up to the hip of his master, it was taller than a Great Dane, with the body and build of a true wolf, his fur coat was long haired and with colors varied from white to grey to black, allowing it to blend in with almost every environment. The head not overly bulky but with a very strong jar and perilous set of teeth.

Obediently the dog stopped his venture further into the ally and walked swiftly to his master.

The man had stopped at one of the many doors that blended into the wall. Knocking at the metal in an unsuspicious pattern, that he then repeated twice, a panel next to the door opened and a hand scanner appeared, ordering in bold letters for him to place his hand on the destined fields.

Knowing that only his fingerprints were required for the identification, he didn't even bothered with removing his finger-less glove, and after a few seconds of processing the door opened with a soundless click.

Allowing the animal to go first the man took the time for one last look around. Not finding anything out of the ordinary he too entered the building, silently closing their gateway.

Behind the door greeted both a long and empty hallway, further into the building. Knowing his way around the man walked with wide strides down the corridor. His companion walked next to his hip, holding easy the same pace as his master. Behind a sharp corner to the left, they arrived at a more open area.

The room, roughly ten meters long and twelve meters wide had several small tables placed along the three sides of the walls and one big one in the middle, offering workspace for ten or more people.

A variety of tools and other appliances were scattered over the surface. A seating and break area with a sofa and tables took over the last wall. Four more doors led to further areas and into the warehouse. To his knowledge one was a private office, one a restroom for the people who worked here the other two had different storage units behind it.

Tonight however, was only one man at work. He sat at the table in the center of the room, and was holding a small soldering tool. Fumes of melting lead wavered through the room, a pair of precision glasses over his eyes.

Looking up from his work, Andrew smiled, wiping the soldering iron on a wet sponge and then placed it into a holding spring. His hand now free, he pushed the glasses up to rest on his head, "Ah Kranio, good evening, nice you could make it."

The newly named man snarled a sullen greeting as response. With a quick motion of his hand the canine, took place next to the entree, sitting with full attention and guarding it for his master.

Kranio himself walked towards a fridge build into the wall, pulling out a bottle of beer. Removing the bottle top with one swift turn of his hand and throwing the cap with ease into the next bin, Kranio fell back onto the sofa. Only after a good gulp of the alcoholic beverage he spoke: "I do hope you have a good reason to call me Andrew. I was on a hunt."

"You are always hunting," Andrew smiled shaking his head, "The day when you are not, I know you are sleeping 6 feet underground." The hunter smiled not even bothering to object to the accusation.

After a minute or so in quiet Kranio finally broke the silence and spoke: "So?"

Holding the stern glance from the other end with ease, Andrew said, "I want you to find something for me."

"Boring," countered the hunter, gulping another mouthful from the bottle.

"Would it be more interesting for you to know, the last person seen with it was The Batman?" carefully observing the other while placing his bait.

Kranio's eyes widen, his curiosity awoken and interest was glowing in his green eyes: "Ah, now we are talking. What is it and how much?"

"Five million if you get a confirmed location. 15 for a picture with the item in said location and 150 million should you bring it to me." Listed Andrew his condition; resting his head on his interweaved fingers.

Twirling the half full bottle between his hands, Kranio watched the golden liquid moved in its glass confinement: "And what's holding me back from bringing the Thermos directly to Mr. Luthor?"

His elbow buckled and Andrews head slipped undignified from his hands, while turning a nice shade of red right up to his ears: "You ... you know?"

A deep laugh resonated through the room and the hall way attached: "It's impossible to have not to."

The laughter died down as Andrew coughed the awkwardness away, whipping in a nervous habit his hands against the fabric of his pants: "Yeah you could bring the Thermos directly to Mr. Luthor but what would hinder him to just put a bullet through your head? He is not inclined to give you the same deal as I." He argued, now pointing one finger at the other.

The hunter shrugged half sided, placing his left arm on the backrest.

"Besides, you don't have the tools or a way to search for it."

Thinking over the situation Kranio had to agree: "Fair enough." He emptied his drink with one last knock back and placed the bottle next to him on a small coffee table. Standing up he said: "So show me what you are up to."

Andrew waved his hand over the item before him: "This piece of technology happened to be in my possession and thanks to the extensive research S.T.A.R. Laps has done, I was able to tune it on the energy signature, the Thermos is emitting."

Eying the pieces of tech that was placed on the table, Kranio decided it could have been a PDA, old style, from a few years back, as they had still be in use before the modern Smartphone. He could work with that. "And how does it work?"

"It will scan the wide area in a 20 kilometers radius and if the Radar picks anything up, it will provide you with a rough point of origin. Unable to tune it with an example from the original source, I could only manage so much. Once you have a direction you will have to get closer. At 5 kilometers distance, it will already be able to give a more accurate location. For a 100% confirmation you will have to get much closer, less than 1000 meters."

"That will not be a problem." Kranio made a grab for the Radar. His new partner and temporary boss stopped him by holding his arm at the elbow.

"Something you should know, Batman had not been seen with the thermos again, nor was recently any strange new energy source "discovered" in any of the laboratories worldwide," the Mohawk nodded in agreement, "There is also a high chance that he gave the thermos to one of his friends, maybe even the big guy." hinting on the Man of Steel.

"I will keep that in mind, anything else I should know?"

Andrew locked his eyes with the other man: "Don't get caught, as long as nobody suspects that there is interested from our side, a break in will have the advantage of the surprise." After Andrew was sure that the hunter had understood the message he finally let go.

Kranio took the Radar and examine it closer.

"One more thing," Andrew reclined in the chair he sat, straighten his back out, making him look taller, "Be careful with the Radar, it is the only thing at the moment, that can scan for that energy source, you understand?"

One eyebrow raised, and tiling his head to the right the Mohawk smirked: "I will." A few minutes later he had made himself aware on how to operate the Radar and he pocketed the device, calling for his pet he left the room: "Come Amber, we hunt."

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_This Interlude is dedicated to _**Ciestess84** to meet Nightwing in the story. This has nothing to do with the main story and is just for fun and my idea why Robin changed his name to Nightwing.

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**_Interlude _**

It was the second day after Danny had woken up at the Watchtower. He was still confined to the bed, only because the doctor had insisted, Danny himself felt fine.

Well as fine as someone could be in his position.

With a sigh Danny let go of the history book in his hands and rested the thick tome on his legs. He was currently catching up with the history in this world, while looking for things that differ from the world he had known for 16 years. His blue eyes strayed to the other occupant in the room, the teenager that had introduced himself as Robin.

The fifteen year old was launching at the comfy chair placed at the opposite wall to the entrance, his legs thrown over the arm rest, cheerfully tipping on the interface that was attached to his left arm, a hologram display hovering over the device function as a screen. It was an interesting piece of technology and Danny could say it was far more advanced than the devices he had known back home.

Felling the eyes on him, the dark haired teen stopped and looked up, catching the other teen watching him. "Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked in a polite tone. Bruce had left him here to keep Danny company for the moment, while the adults had work to do.

Danny was about to shake his head, when he remembered something that had occupied his thoughts the last night. He just hoped that the other boy didn't take any offence for his questioning. "Why do you call yourself Robin?"

The question, so out of context, surprised Dick and he blinked a few times before he replied: "Why do you want to know?"

Danny shrugged with one shoulder: "Just curiosity."

Not seeing any harm this piece of information could do, Robin finally replied, "My father gave me the nick name when I was young."

"So Batman isn't your father." uttered Danny, his head slightly cocked to the right.

Immediately Robin straighten in his seat, the device on his arm automatically deactivated itself. "Why would you think that?"

The harsh tone in that the replied was stated, almost made Danny flinch away, knowing that in some way he had offended the other, he turned his glaze away, finding his blanket suddenly very interesting. "Never mind, forget that I asked."

Dick (aka Robin) cleared his throat, pushing away the hurt feeling that had come up with Danny`s presumption: "No, please why would you guess that Batman is not my real father." His own curiosity sparked.

Debating with himself for a moment Danny decided, that he owed Robin an explanation, for the hurt his seemingly harmless question had caused. "Well, I would have guess as a son of Batman, you would use a name that strikes fear in your opponent like his. While most bats are frugivorous animals, they still are seen as predators in the mind of the common man. A robin, a bird that is only active in daylight, and mostly seen as prey to others doesn't fit."

Batman`s young partner and adoptive son, thought about the words the other teenager had given as answer. There was truth in it, his real father didn't choose the name he used now for his hero persona to inflict fear, like Bruce had chosen his, and he named him Robin because he flew like one when he was still part of the Flying Grayson, but that was his past and he felt like a true son to Bruce.

Covering his chin with his right, Dick recline back into the backrest of his seat: "I see where you are coming from." Thinking about it for a moment in quiet, his eyes glazed over deep in thoughts until he turned back to his companion: "May I ask what you would suggest, if you would be in my position?"

Danny shrugged again: "I don`t know, there are not many predators that have wings and are active at night. Owls, but you don`t strike me like one." Shaking his head, he didn't see the face that Robin pulled as he mentioned the silent flyer.

Dick had immediately connected the animal with Owlman the villain and shook his head too. "No Owl is a no go, there is a villain that used it already too."

Before Robin could think about more possible names of something active at night with wings, the com integrated in his arm signaled him of the time.

He had to go back to earth. His extended stay on the space station was over. He caught the curious look of those arctic blue eyes, that were a few shades lighter than his own, the protective guard had lessen over the time of his stay but was still there. "I'll have to go now, school is starting again tomorrow." He apologized as good as he could, with his eyes hidden behind the white of the mask.

Danny nodded understanding, that Robin had a personal life, and could not devote all his time to him adjusting, even if it was much easier to talk with another teenager as an adult.

Over the last two years, especially after the war and resent betrayal of the GIW, he had lost any trust in adults or authority figure, and it was hard to work against the walls he had built for his protection.

"I'll see if Batman may let me come up on the weekend, should I not be on mission of course." Dick tried to smooth out, but Danny just nodded again, not offering any words as a reply. "Hey, maybe I can bring Kid Flash too, I`m sure you would like him."

"Sounds good." Said Danny finally, picking up the history book again, avoiding Robins look.

Robin stood up from his position and waved at Danny: "See you next week then, bye."

Acknowledging the farewell with a curt nod Danny mumbled a quiet "Bye" and opened the book at the passage he was reading before.

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**AN 1**: So short background to this chapter. I asked one of my friends if I could reward her for her help, with a bonus chapter and what character was her favorite.

Surprisingly it was Andrew, the auctioneer from "The Auction" and chapter one. Something I don't understand as he was really just an OC I created out of inconvenience, but many people came to love him (and I really don't know why?). It also helped with introducing the next character to the story - to all DP fans it should be clear, who he represents - for anyone in the unknown, you can ask me in a PM or wait until 8/9.

Anyway this chapter is for you Talia Ahria.

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**AN 2**: For all the people that are waiting for the "Let us enter Danny's mind" part, this will be the next chapter. I do apologies for the long wait, some personal stuff has come up, plus chapter 7 **really** didn't want to be written. At one point I disliked it so much I was about to throw it away completely when I received a great review (they do motivate me, so keep them coming ^^) and decided to change the chapter from start, re-rolling it and therefore had to re-write it from the beginning.

Rest assured, the next chapter will be extra-long. As example when I normally write a chapter by hand it has four or five pages + one or two pages extra with cliff notes at the end. Chapter 7 has 18 hand written pages and 5 pages of cliff notes … As chapter 8 comes along now I hope chapter 7 will be up for you to read before end of July. Though I can't make any promises as I will travel in between this time and that always disturbs my schedule.

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**AN 3**: And finally, if you like my writing, do have a look at my other story "The clean up" it's an Iron Man 2 / Danny Phantom crossover. That is kind of lost in the comic section, as Iron Man the movie has not his own tag and I didn't want to tag as "Avengers" crossover.

Sorry for the advertisement, but I think the story it better as the barely 2000 hits it has received since May 2014.


	7. Past and Future

**AN: ****First I wish to apologize for the delay, many things stood in the way before I could finally upload this chapter. The best example would be that I upload today from my hospital bed and I'm currently also not allowed to work more then 30 minutes on a keyboard.**

**However enough of me ... have fun with the new chapter - as always keep in mind that English is not my native language and should you find any spelling errors or grammar mistakes, please let me know about them in a PM.**

**Big thanks goes also to my Beta reader:** **KodiakWolfe13**

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**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Danny Phantom or Justice League/Young Justice or any other characters you might recognize.

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**_Chapter 7: Past and future_**

Every mindscape is different, as they reflect the experience, the memories, hidden desires, dark secrets, the deepest fears and more of said person. Someone could learn a lot from somebody's mindscape, but entering one does not come easily and it's dangerous if unprepared. They had their own set of rules, different laws of physic and sometimes could be extremely violent, lashing out at any uninvited guest or intruder.

Manhunter himself had entered many different mindscapes over the time of his existence. For his two companion's it was a very new experience. To begin, he wanted to go alone, but was quick persuaded by Black Canary and Batman to let them join. Clark had protested, however Bruce was able to convince him, that it would be better if he didn't accompanied them.

So it was only the two humans and J'onn that found themselves in a wasteland filled with nothing but snow. In the far distance sat the ruins of a small town, with half broken skyscrapers and other buildings barely visible for the human eye.

Manhunter remembered that the young man, whose mind they had entered, had told them on his first day he was awake about the planet-wide war that had taken place in his universe. He didn't share much, as it had obviously pained him speaking off it, but revealed, nonetheless, enough for the Leaguers to understand that he had not only lived during that time, but actually was one of the key-figures and had been fighting on the front line. Therefore it came to him with no surprise that it had highly affected his mindscape in this way.

The thing that stood out the most and stirred his concern for this troubled soul was the amount of snow that buried everything around them in a thick layer, sometimes reaching up higher than his head, making it almost impossible to use land marks as orientation points.

"Where are we?" asked Dinah, her eyes darting around taking in her surroundings. While snow piled up on the ground it was surprisingly not cold. Bruce who too had first evaluated their situation, walked a few meters to a piece of debris that hat caught his eye. With a swipe of his hand, he revealed under the white, fluffy coat big red letters, in bold writing they read: **Amity Park. **The other half was missing and the rough edge was covered in black soot; fist sized holes were littered over the sign indicated an unnatural cause of destruction.

"His home town." Bruce said, answering the question, his voice reflecting the same icy steel he had just uncovered.

"Homely," she rejoiced her voice dripping with sarcasm, "What is with the sky?" Dinah looked at J'onn, as he was the one with the most experience of them.

All three turned their eyes up, taking in the strange mix of green, grey, blue and black that made the firmament over their head. The average colour was grey and blue with twirling black and green spots all over the place. Some were the size of a basketball; others were big enough to swallow a four story house. There was no pattern they could see that would help them to understand what they were seeing.

"I don't now, but it does remind me a little of some places the Time Medallion had shown me, without those purple doors floating around." Manhunter explained with a shrug. "Before we go, I ask you to only use your power if there is absolutely no other option. We don`t know how Daniel`s mind will react," he caught Canary's blue eyes with his own, as she was the only one beside him with superhuman abilities, "He could see us as a threat."

Dinah nodded, it was a good thing then that she didn't rely so much on her gift as many others from the league.

"Let's go then." Addressed Batman his companions, choosing the path with the least rubble in the way as he took the lead.

They had walked almost an hour when Manhunter noticed that the snow covered ruins surrounding them became smaller and there was less space between the piles of rubble. Notifying the others about his observation, Batman replied: "We are getting closer to the centre of the destruction."

The broken skyscraper was still a far distance away, painting a grotesque background.

Canary's blue eyes wandered over the ruined buildings left and right of her, "Whatever it caused, it was strong enough to obliterate anything in its path."

Batman and Manhunter nodded; they had noticed the same.

Another 30 minutes later they walked past the end of a wall the size of a grown man. Behind the ruins of what may have been a school or office building in the past, was now a vast area with nothing blocking the eye for a long distance. The snow here was smooth and plain, drawing the eyes of the three heroes on the one single irregularity.

Just close enough to still see his facial expression, kneeled a human looking Danny. One arm stretched out holding his body up and out of the snow, the other curled around his midsection as to try to keep him from falling apart. His whole body was shaking like a leaf and a cloud of black smoke whirled in an unseen wind around him, like a tornado.

"Daniel!" yelled Black Canary, hoping that the young man would hear.

Surprisingly, the black haired head snapped in their direction. He had heard them, yet the second they locked eyes with him the three knew this would not end so easily.

A screech echoed over them and Manhunter barley managed to project a shield for their protection. Pain clawed on the alien's mind, even with the barrier in place and he struggled to maintain the energy needed to keep it up. The force of the attack was unexpected and while he fought off the assault - that had no point of origin and came from every direction - he could see that Daniel, who also was affected, did not.

The body of the young man had straightened up; he was now kneeling his torso upright, the arms pressed left and right to his side, his head thrown back and he echoed the attack with a painful scream of his own.

The black smoke became more substantial and Manhunter could distinguish several human-shaped bodies forming.

J'onn was unable to remember when he had sunk to his knees during the onslaught. Only when he realized, he also noticed that Daniel was no longer there. It took a moment for his mind to orient himself and to not focus on the ringing in his ears until he felt the presence of his friends. With one arm slung around his back and the other under his arms, Batman carefully helped him back to his own feet.

"What was that?" asked the Dark Knight.

Manhunter shrugged one-sidedly: "A defense mechanic…perhaps…and not a pleasant one." He cringed as the last remnants of the energy slowly crawled down his back.

"He is gone." Announced Dinah. She, too, was shaking, but managed to stand on her own and without help.

"Let's see if we can find anything that may lead us to where he had gone." Bruce held his arm around J'onn until he was sure that the green alien was steady on his own again. As they got closer to the point Danny once had been, a wall made out of see-through, bottle-green glass materialized right before them and their path.

Wary from his previous encounter with the slightly green glowing ice barrier, Manhunter carefully stepped closer. As he hovered his right hand over the smooth looking surface, a movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. When the two others noticed it too, all three got into a more defensive position.

On the opposite of the barrier, a figure in black clothing slowly descended from the weird looking sky, a strong white glow surrounding it. As the person came closer, the blinding light dimmed down and the three soon recognized the being before them.

"Daniel." spoke Manhunter first.

White hair shook in a negative motion. The one spoken of had stopped eye level with the three adults, floating over the ground but not touching it.

The alien cocked his head, sharing an equally puzzled looked with the blond singer.

A set of white boots, gloves, belt and collar connected to a midnight black hazmat suit with the DP emblem on the chest.

'_This is Daniel in his Phantom form_,' Bruce concluded, '_Could it be that Danny's hero persona had split from the human persona?'_ He questioned himself. '_Then again they were in the mindscape of the young man, therefore it could also be some sort of guardian Manhunter had mentioned previous.'_

"Phantom." He voiced his thought and it wasn't a question.

"You should not be here!" stated the figure firmly as his reply.

The three adults noticed that he held the same echo in the voice as the hologram from Clockwork and Danny's nonhuman half. He also didn't object to Batman's outcome.

"What just happened? Where is Danny?" asked Black Canary.

"Why are you here?" countered the white haired boy, eyes wandering from one person to the next, stopping finally at the green humanoid alien.

"We found you unconscious in your room, still as Phantom. Do you know why?"

Weaving his gloved fingers through his starch white hair, the youngest of the four sighed, his exterior slowly crumbling under the situation. Green eyes hidden behind tired eyelids he mumbled: "The past is catching up."

"Please explain." J'onn inquired. They could see Phantom chewing on the bottom of his lips in a nervous habit. The boy was obviously unsure how to answer his question but he had also not outright denied an explanation.

All the while Phantom was struggling against his own insecurities for the courage needed to answer the three powerful adults, two of them founding members of the Justice League. Deep in thought, he didn't even notice when he had stopped hovering in the air and landed on the firm snow that covered the ground.

Stealing a glance into the red eyes of Manhunter, the young half-ghost let out another sigh, having reached a conclusion. His body straightened up and he directed his next words towards the blond: "What have you told them about us?"

Dinah sent him an encouraging smile, or she hoped he would see it was one. "Nothing from our talk, though we did have a few ideas and made an assumption in regards of your second half. That's it."

"She didn't say anything that would explain your current state." Added Batman at the end.

Phantom cocked his head slightly to the right "She didn't?" He measured the blond with his eerie green eyes. A small smile tugged on the corner of his lips, some of the built-up tension leaving and he was visibly more at ease.

Manhunter shook his head. He knew that the question at the end had only been rhetorical, but wanted to support Bruce's statement with this gesture of confirmation anyway.

"Thank you." he gave a nod towards the singer and turned then to Batman and Manhunter, who stood next to him. "What she didn't share was that creatures of my nonhuman half feed on emotion to sustain. Black Canary's biggest concern was that it would hurt the other person, so I'm getting to this point directly. It's non-invasive and the other doesn't feel a thing."

"Then why did you hide it?" questioned Batman.

Scratching the back of his head and neck in the same nervous habit they had seen on the young man before, Phantom looked ashamed. Taking a deep breath he explained: "It can't be just any emotion and in our world most of the creatures from the _'Zone'_ feed on fear. Usually by inflicting said emotion on the person in the first place."

"Hm," Manhunter examined the new information and the demeanor of the young halfa before them. After a short moment of silence, he glanced at Bruce and both shared a nod. They understood now why Phantom was so reluctant to let other's know. This was definitely something someone else might see as bad. "We see your point. Please continue."

Phantom swallowed the lump in his throat that was threatening to silence him: "Being a halfa distinguished us from the others in this too. While the usual resident of the _'Zone' _feeds on emotion, they don't have to live through them." Phantom's shoulders slacked and he looked down at his feet.

"But you do?" inquired Dinah, coming to a deeper understanding of their chat the evening before.

He nodded in confirmation: "That's why we," he pointed at himself, "prefer positive emotion," He carded his gloved hand through his snow coloured hair. Once again, glowing green orbs swayed from the ground to the three and back again, "but happiness is a rare good in the time of war."

Bruce blinked, quickly piecing the information together: "The dark clouds…"

"Despair, hate, anger, sadness… guilt." Phantom confirmed, "Emotion that are easy accessible and in no shortage in a war, especially in the center of the fighting."

After a minute, J'onn broke the silence and asked what the other two also had in mind: "You had to feed on those emotions, back during your war, then why do they attack Danny and you now?"

Phantoms eyes focused on the humanoid alien: "If we had let those emotions distracted us during the war, Dan would have easily overpower us. So despite my own objection Danny used our ice ability's to freeze them, sealing them away in an icy prison."

"Until they broke free, I assume?"

Holding the glare from those red eyes with slowly diminishing confidence, Phantom nodded.

"Then we have to deal with them." Stated Batman firmly.

"No," shaking his head viciously, "No!" he repeated a second time with more force. "They are to strong… I already tried." Rubbing his left arm from joint to shoulder with his right, he attempted to sooth the ache from his last encounter. Scowling, his face twisted into anger about his failure: "They won't release Danny."

"Then we will help you, both halves of you. Lower the barrier." Insisted Black Canary. The other two males expressed their approval with a firm nod, adding their support wordlessly.

"I can't." was the reluctant answer from Phantom.

One hairless eyebrow moved up his forehead, Manhunter looked surprised at the refusal.

"You can't or you won't?" he questioned, feeling there was more.

Phantom ducked his head, caught by the alien. He avoided the icy glares from the three adults, mumbling a quiet "Both."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Bruce ordered quietly but with the full force of Batman's voice: "Explain!"

The young halfa flinched under the harsh tone and winced.

To sooth some of the tension, Dinah added a gentler "Please"

"I… we… have this shield for a reason." His voice barely rose above a whisper.

Before either of the three could ask, a patch on the still visible barrier between them cleared and a man dressed in a blood red suit and a classic black top hat appeared. His face pale and waxy with cruel red eyes full of malicious intent, almost disappearing back into the skull with an oversized beak like nose in the center. In his hand was a tall staff with a red bat on top, two jade green stones as eyes, the wings open, holding over the head a big crystal ball, red mist swirling inside. A voice dripping in malice ordered: "Obey!" and the TV size screen drowned in blood red colour.

"Mind control?" asked J'onn tentatively.

Phantom nodded, still not looking up "We… we almost killed our best friends that day… twice."

Understanding the apprehension of the young man now better, Batman loosened his posture: "That explains your fear of letting us in, but shouldn't you be able to restore the barrier after you have woken up?"

The teenager shook his head in negative, finally raising his eyes to face Batman's glare "No, it was Clockwork," he swiftly glanced at Manhunter, "Who helped us to build it in the first place. He was still teaching us to create and reinforce one that was impervious to any attack, and we… I… won't risk having an unsustainable shield."

"Why?" wanted BC to know.

Underlining his words, Phantom waved his hand through the air, a green fire surrounding it with energy, showing another ability they didn't yet know about. "Our powers are dangerous. We witnessed already one world on the brink of human extinction… twice. Caused by someone with the same abilities as ours. If someone would take control over me… us… who knows what would happen."

"The League would interfere." Argued Batman, but Danny's ghost half shook his head again. The fire on his hand extinguished and he crossed his arms over the chest.

"No… yeah, sure you and the League have enough fire power to take us down in the end, but to what price?" Eyes narrowed, he gave each of them a hard glare. "None of you know how to fight against… against someone like us. You _**would** _lose people…permanently and your world is so fragile…every hero you have is needed…to keep the meager order you have managed to achieve. We...," his voice started to falter, losing what little confidence he had started with and the three could see and hear tears in his voice as he spoke, "We… are just… just a mistake… an anomaly… we shouldn't be here…" his words quite down to a whisper, "…and nobody would miss us anyways."

"So you have decided to just give up and to throw away the gift your mentor has granted you in his last moments of existence?" snapped Manhunter at the young man, going so far to take another step closer to the barrier between them.

As if he had taken a hit into his gut, Phantom staggered back, not having expected the harsh words from the usual so calm humanoid green alien.

"I do understand your situation, far better than most. Believe me." Manhunter added in a softer voice. "But your reason to sacrifice yourself, and in coherence Daniel, is just an excuse and an easy way out of a quandary. What you need is trust: trust in us," he waved his arm over the other two, "in me," he pointed at himself, "We… I… will help you. If you place your trust in me, I promise I will protect your mind and teach you to do so by yourself."

A tremor rippled through the green barrier, although it didn't yield.

"What will the rest of the League say…? They have not yet stood judgment over us and I will not see you getting in trouble for helping us." His voice trembled with apprehension, a copy to the still upstanding shield.

A small and refreshing chuckle passed over Manhunters's lips. "If I didn't know your concern for my person in the eyes of my friends, I still would offer my help… as I do know, I would prefer to offer you what your previous mentor had, a guardian and apprenticeship."

Phantom starred into Manhunters's red eyes, searching for any ill intend or a lie hidden in the '_Too good to be true'_ offer. He didn't find any. Moving his gaze towards the blond, he couldn't find any deception there either. The discovery overwhelmed him. For the first time, he could remember there where adults that wanted to help him with no other motive or reason than the will to help. Sure he had had his family, actually more he had had Jazz, however, she could never fully relate to his situation. Nobody could back in his world. The only one even coming close to his situation and daily struggle had been Vlad and he, for all intended purposes, had been a bastard, using his powers for selfish reasons and always mocking him for using the powers for helping others.

Yet, the three before him were heroes, not only for one small unimportant town in the middle of nowhere, but actually working together with dozens of other heroes to protect their whole world and beyond. And they were not all humans either.

He still didn't know how they would react to the fact that he was in fact half-ghost. Nevertheless, they did risk coming into their mind to save both halves of them.

Phantom wanted to trust, craved the feeling to have someone that was there for him… for them, for their support, someone to look up to and releasing him of the sorrow and weight of the world on his shoulders that was placed there when Dan had declared war against the human race.

Phantom closed his eyes, hiding away the fear over the 'what if's' and decided to do the leap of faith and placing his trust in the hands of the humanoid alien. He could physically feel the weight of his shoulders lifting and it unbalanced him enough that his knees buckled and gave away. Simultaneously, the green barrier finally disappeared.

Suddenly, the three seasoned heroes were hit by a strong gush of wind, making them almost lose their footings as they rushed forward to the boy on the ground. Manhunter was the first, catching him as he swayed while sitting on his heels.

"Phantom?" asked Manhunter, a miniature amount of fear in his voice, showing his concern towards the young teen in his arms, he began to care in an alarming short amount of time.

Two otherworldly green orbs opened and looked up into the red ones of the man holding him. A shy smile appeared on a face that virtually had forgotten the display of emotion. "Thank you."

"Phantom, are you okay?" inquired Dinah, her voice was laced with worry.

The white haired head moved to the side catching her eyes: "No," he closed his eyes shaking his head slightly, "but we will be; give me a moment."

Taking in a deep breath, the blond watched in wonder how the tattered suit Phantom was wearing, that they could now see more closely, slowly mended itself.

While Bruce observed their surroundings, he noticed the swirling lights all over the sky calming down, mirroring the emotion of the boy.

After a long minute Phantom righted himself and, with a helping hand, stood again on his own two feet. "Thanks," he repeated holding onto Manhunter's arm for a moment longer, before he turned to face the other two as well.

Batman examined the halfa, taking in every small movement and only when he was sure he was okay, he asked "Do you know where Danny is?"

"I have a good idea," he replied, "when I'm close enough, I will be able to feel him."

"Good."

Red eyes caught green once again and Manhunter spoke with sincerity: "Once this is over, we need to have a long talk. No more secrets!"

Phantom cringed for a second on that thought then sighed and accepted the order. "No more secrets." He confirmed reluctant.

A hand was placed on his shoulders and when the teen followed the appendage he saw Batman, eyes blocked by the mask but he could feel the candour of the hero: "We do have a good guess on your half, and I want to assure you that it doesn't matter what you are. It takes both halves of you to make the person you have come to be."

Blinking confused, Phantom held Batman's empty gaze. A silent moment passed. "I… don't know what to say." He confessed.

Dinah chuckled, "That is as much of an apology you might get from Bat."

Manhunter, too, smiled at the teen, "An appropriate answer to that would be 'Thank you'."

Blushing a nice shade of red, Phantom nodded and stammered his gratitude.

The Dark Knight squeezed his shoulders for a brief moment then let his arm fall back to his side.

"You said you know where Danny has been taken?" asked Dinah looking at the ghost half expectedly.

He nodded, "The portal."

"Portal?" parroted the blond.

"It's were we had our accident," he pointed south, "That way."

"I think I saw that in the memories of the time medallion," said Manhunter, surprising the others. "A big round opening built with the same white grey metal as the thermos?"

"Yes," confirmed Phantom, shaking of the last remnants from his shock and walked on, the three adults following close. "Maddie and Jack, our parents, built the portal in the basement of our house when we were 14."

The group was on their way, walking over snow covered ground while Phantom explained in detail what had happened that faithful day years ago when they first entered the portal as a human and exited it as a hybrid, still avoiding any mention of ghosts, having decided that he wanted to be awake and whole for that.

"So you weren't born a hybrid." Stated Black Canary when he finished, connecting this piece of information with Phantom's previous mention that he had no need to feed 'that way' before the war.

"No," confirmed the young man in their midst.

"You know that amount of energy should have killed you." Added Batman, hoping to ease Phantom into talking about his possible 'half-dead' status he and the others guessed him to be.

"We are aware of this." He replied stiffly, his shoulders tense. He had swallow away another lump building in his throat.

"Can I ask you something?" inquired Dinah, breaking the silence between them.

Guiding the three adults through the remains of Amity Park, Phantom glanced at Dinah for a brief moment. "Sure."

"Why are you avoiding Superman?" She wanted to know.

The teen stopped in his step for a second then walked on again, a look of embarrassment on his face. "I… he," Phantom sighed. "It's nothing personal." He carted his gloved hand through his white and unruly hair.

"… but?" probed Batman, stepping over a bigger piece of debris in his path.

"Superman is not from earth, right?" asked the teen, voicing his question at none particular of the three.

The adults shared a surprised look.

"What makes you think that?" replied Manhunter the question with a question, trying to follow the thoughts of his new charge.

Phantom shrugged, "Unlike other humans, he doesn't emit emotion but excess energy: solar energy. My guess is, he got his powers from the sun."

The three were shocked to silence. It wasn't a widely known fact that Superman relied on the yellow sun to charge his abilities and the three were sure there had been nothing about this fact in the information they had provided him during his stay.

As none of the others replied, Phantom continued "As Danny said, on our first day on the Watchtower, we have an ice-core and Superman is radiating solar energy." A chuckle escaped his lips. "I think on the first day in the infirmary we got a tan just by him standing next to us."

Dinah smiled. She had guessed right then. However, this would also mean it wasn't something they could easily overcome. "Is there something we can do to help?"

"No," was Phantom answer, "We will just have to adjust. Blocking out certain emotions to not be overwhelmed is nothing new to us. We only have to adjust to the energy he emits." He further explained. "We are here." He added to his last words, before another question was asked, waving at a building in front of them.

The two top floors were gone and only some metal framing indicated the previous existence to the three adults. A huge sign, whose top half was no longer attached and somewhere on the ground buried between all the other debris, hung on the last two hinges, showing the past four letters of a name '...nton'.

"Your home?"

"More what is left from it." Mumbled Phantom over his shoulder at Batman.

Dinah let her eyes scanning the rubble "How do we get in there?" Dangerous inclining brick walls were the only thing left at the base of the house and she was unsure if they could make a passage into the ruins. There was also the justified question if the basement was still intact under all the weight and had not already caved in.

"There is a tunnel in the back of the building to give the spec… ah, hovercraft our parents had built access. However I could phase all of us inside, though that would ruin the surprise moment."

Thinking over the different options available, Bruce covered his chin and mouth with his left hand, pondering over a variable of possible strategies in his brilliant mind. "You are sure that your human half is in there?"

Phantom nodded his eyes not leaving the sight in front of him, pain and despair gleaming in his green eyes.

"Phantom do you think, with the similarity to your intangibility, that Manhunter's density shift would work, or could it cause any negative reaction if used?"

Otherworldly eyes assessed the humanoid alien. "No it should work. Me accepting you as guardian will allow you to use most of your powers, possibly all off them."

"Okay, that is what we will do…"

* * *

Grey steel panels covered the four walls of the oblong basement. A coat of white plastic topped the ceiling while the floor was built with greenish-grey tiles. Two lights, one on each end of the room, created just enough light to see, as well as produce eerie shadows along the corners.

In the center of the far off wall was a huge metal ring with many different modules and consoles attached left and right from it. No power supplied the contraption so you could see a narrow tunnel behind the opening, the end lost in the darkness.

A faint voice whimpered a quite: "Sorry" over and over again, like a track stuck on repeat. Words spoken in hatred, only he could hear, cycled around Danny's prone form, kneeling at the ground, both hands firmly placed over the ears and eyes pressed shut.

Dark shadowy wisps surrounded the teen, moving in and out of the invisible ring, however never touching their victim, causing pain with their words alone.

Fading out of his invisibility, Phantom unexpectedly popped up in the room, holding in each hand a green glowing orb in the size of a fist. He shot the two projectiles at the nearest shadows back, dissolving the wisps by impact.

The others turned around, holing their activities for a moment.

"Missed me?" taunted the ghost teen, recharging the energy in his hands.

The humanoid shadows stilled in their ever swaying movement for a moment before they started to tremble. The shaking increased until each figure split in half, multiplying their numbers by two.

'Oh crap' thought the ghostly teen, letting go of his ecto-blasts as they recharged, focusing the attention on him and reducing their numbers to two less.

In a creepy, sliding move, three quarters of the shadows advanced on the halfa. Only a handful stayed back, guarding their captive and continuing on with their verbal torture.

Phantom slowly retreated, "Let Danny go!" he ordered, knowing that his command would fall on deaf ears. He growled, his own fear raising for each step the black smoke humanoids came closer. He threw more energy blasts at them, only to see them getting deflected. Anticipating their next move, he summoned a barrier to protect him while white balls of energy barreled down on him.

When the attack finally stopped, Phantom stood with his back pressed to the far end wall panting, his shoulders and arms shaking from the struggle to maintain the shield.

Before they could attack again, the white haired teen threw a blade-like construct built from green ecto-energy at them cutting a group of his attackers in half and disintegrating them into nothing, leaving a visible dent in their superior number.

"Come and get me, assholes!" he shouted at them before tapping into his intangibility and shooting at high speed through the ceiling.

His shadowy adversaries followed swiftly, leaving Phantom's human half with only a spare number of guards behind.

Suddenly, a metal panel from the wall near the portal swayed on its loosened joints before crashing down in an ear-piercing bang. The remaining shadows turned towards the sound. Simultaneously, a figure shifted back to the visible spectrum on the other end of the room, charging several energy strikes with both hands. Manhunter released them the second he felt they were strong enough. His aim was accurate and the few guards dissolved into nothing. One moment later, Batman and Black Canary slid down the steep tunnel both landing gracefully on their feet.

Two more shadows appeared behind the group. A batarang coated in a thin layer of green ectoplasm, thanks to Phantom, impaled each chest and they too, dissolved.

With them out of the way, Canary rushed to the prone teen. "Danny? Danny can you hear me?" she asked, slowly closing the final few steps between them, placing her warm hands on his trembling shoulders.

He flinched back from the contact, continuing to mumble his mantra, pressing his eyes firmly shut and blocking any sound with his hands over the ears.

The two men stood guard to any reappearing shadow, while keeping half an eye on the sorrow scene between them.

Dinah knew she had to somehow break through his mantra to help the boy. With gentle force, she carefully pried Danny's hands from his ears and with a soft voice she whispered: "Danny, please open your eyes. You are safe with friends. Those shadows are gone now." She repeated her words twice before there was any reaction that he had heard her.

Voice soft like a whisper in the trees, he asked: "Gone?" The trembling in his frightened body subsided.

"Yes." Dinah answered, adding as much confidence as she could in the single word.

Shaking his head in denial, as much as her hands on either side allowed, Danny cried "No… no, it can't… I… deserve… my… my fault… punishment."

"No, it was not your fault!" exclaimed Manhunter, catching the young boy off guard as he spoke to his left.

Arctic blue eyes snapped open and looked for the first time at his surroundings. He tried to jump back, startled at the closeness of the three heroes, but Black Canary's hand held him in place. His breathing hitched, his eyes grew incredibly wide. His chest constricted in fear. He was on the brink of a panic attack when he felt the hold on him loosen, giving him back the freedom to move away.

A soothing voice slowly worked through the angst, "… calm down… breathe… we are here to help you… calm yourself."

Dinah noticed the change in Danny's eyes when he finally paid attention to her words. She smiled reassuring, "That's right, now breathe." The blond took a deep breath, prompting him with a gesture of her hand to copy.

Focusing only on her and the breathing, Danny could feel the panic and angst slowly dripping away, leaving a troubled yet clear mind.

"What are you doing here?" he inquired, still sitting on the ground, giving each adult a quick but curious glare.

Before anybody could reply, something or, to be correct, someone crash-landed in the far end corner of the room.

J'onn had immediately an energy strike in his hand and Batman was holding his recovered batarangs, ready to throw it at the intruder. Luckily, it wasn't necessary and the three recognized the heap of a body as their guide and Danny's other half, Phantom.

Manhunter dissipated his attack and quickly moved over to the prone figure, calling out at him, "Phantom." Only an inarticulate moan replied.

Batman stayed back, keeping up the guard for the other two still sitting on the ground.

The second the green skinned alien reached the young ghost, Phantom slowly uncurled himself, hissing quietly as the movement aggravated unseen injuries. "Next time I have the brilliant idea to play chicken with a bunch of shadows out for my hide, just shoot me."

"Noted." Replied Manhunter in his casual tone, startling the halfa enough that he cracked open his eyes to look at him to check if he had understand that he meant to be sarcastic.

"Phantom?" asked Danny, his voice trembling like his body, fear and confusion in his eyes, as he looked at the ghostly teen. Arctic blue met otherworldly green. "You…we…shouldn't…can't be…what about…" Danny stammered, almost hysterical, his breathing erratic.

Phantom scrambled to his feet, thanks to Manhunter helping hand. "It's okay Danny. It isn't like that." He replied cryptic.

The three adults shared a confused look, not yet understanding the hidden message that the two teens shared between each other.

"I had to take over, this is only temporary, you would have died…when we lost control over our cryokinesis… you remember Undergrowth and Frostbite."

Black hair followed the nodding movement of the human Danny, still wary about the personified ghost half in front of him.

"We might be separated at the moment, but I do not intent to stay that way," Phantom reassured with a smile.

"Dan?" uttered Danny voiceless, cautious of the others who could hear their talk.

"It takes a lot more and we promised. Do you remember?"

Danny bowed his head, the memory lifted a lot of his worries about his separate ghost half.

"We should go, as long as those shadows are still absent." Advised Batman, looking reprehending at the two boys.

"What will happen when we wake up?" asked the black haired teen, new fear pooling in his stomach.

"We will have a long talk." Manhunter stated.

Seeing Phantom agreeing surprised Danny and he stared at them for a moment. "Anything I should know?" Danny decided that seeing Phantom repeating his own nervous habit of scratching his neck was really weird. He barely could hear him mumble: "You will know when we wake up."

"How do we get out?" inquired Dinah, looking from Danny's human half next to her to Danny's ghost half next to Manhunter.

"The way everything started for us." Explained Phantom pointing at the open portal behind them.

Danny audible swallowed, sharing a meaning full look with his ghost half: "This is going to hurt right?"

"What? Why?" interjected the blond heroine.

Phantom nodded at Danny and Dinah, "We have to be one again to," he suddenly stopped his head turned towards a sound only audible for his keen senses, "No more time to explain, Danny," The human teen looked at his counterpart, waiting. "Set the dials on the right, I will take the left." The one that was spoken to confirmed the order and rose to his feet, each teen moving to their appointed task.

Manhunter followed Phantom, while Dinah stayed close by Danny, ready to offer support if necessary.

"Is there anything we can do to assist you?"

"No," replied both in sync when J'onn asked.

"After the portal is stable, you have to pass it as soon as possible. I don't know how long it will stay open once we wake up." Explained Phantom to the three adults, turning a red switch to the highest point.

Blue eyes wandered from one half to the other. Dinah asked "What about you two?"

They had all gathered before the metal contraption. Each of them now felt dread rising like a constant stream of water out of a flood gate. The shadows had almost reached them.

"I'm done." announced Danny, taking his place next to Phantom who was also ready.

"Then let's do it." Said the other, offering his hand towards his human half, who only slightly hesitated before he took the offered appendage. Not waiting any longer, both halves ghost and human walked into the tube.

A shout at the front told them they had run out of time. The shadows had arrived. Danny and Phantom launched forward and closed the last few steps and pressed with their combined hand the 'ON' switch on the inside of the wall. Green light swallowed them while all their nerves lit on fire as the power ran through them once again, merging a human half with his ghost half.

It was an experience Danny, now whole again, could have lived without repeating. When the pain finally stopped, he slowly became aware of his surroundings again and the voices calling his name and the names of Batman, Black Canary and Manhunter. Suddenly, someone lifted his eye and a painful, bright light was directed at his eyes, dazzling his sight.

Startled by the close proximity of whoever was holding that cursed light, Danny reacted on reflex and shoved the arm away while rolling his body in the one direction he could not sense anyone standing.

What he didn't expected was that he was placed on a table so he landed on the hard floor with a huff, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Pushing the pain to the side, he scrambled to his feet. In a fraction of a second, he had assessed his surroundings, finding too many people for his liking in the small room he was in and he bolted.

He was halfway through the wall as he heard someone shouting, "Phantom!"

The voice had a certain edge to it that made Danny freeze in his movement.

"Come back inside. Nobody here will hurt you."

Slowly the halfa turned around and back into his quarter, only to see Manhunter's red eyes glaring at him. Glowing green orbs wandered over all the different heroes and the team of doctors, one of whom were sitting on the ground, nursing his arm.

"I…" Danny stammered, the echo to his voice couldn't hide the fear that was present in the one vocal he managed to say.

"It's okay. We are here to help, so please let them check if everything is in order."

He was shaking his head with force, denying the request, when he was once more interrupted from the green humanoid alien: "No more secrets, remember?"

Danny sighed, "Yes."

Energy that had been rushing through his ghostly body was wearing off and he was ready to break down again, but he couldn't with so many people surrounding him. Pleading with his eyes he looked at his new guarding, "Can… can we… take it slow, please?" His secrets were the only thing in the past that had kept him safe. Laying everything out at once open frightened him more than he was ready to admit.

The hard glare from those red eyes dimmed down and became substantially softer. "Let them examine you and when they give their okay, we talk. Only you and me."

His words were still an order, but missing the sharp edge they had before.

"And me," added Batman simultaneously as Black Canary.

Sliding down the wall behind him, Danny took comfort of the protection it represented in his mind, eyes still wary and frightened he looked at those three, finally accepting defeat he whispered "…O… Okay…"

* * *

**AN: And we are done with my longest chapter yet, I hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter will take a while but I promise to never abandon this story.**


	8. The vist

_I'm alive … surprise … _

_I apologize for the long wait, however the last year have been a major roller-coaster for me. I almost died from a severe Gallbladder infection, the company I was working at this time closed down there office. Started a new job that wasn't as I've expected. My depression - that I had for years - pushed me to a breaking point and when I finally manged to see some light in my life, I've got sick again… yeah … I got better and somehow managed to continue… started even writing again … (a one shot that will released around Halloween) then I've lost my job … With some luck I got quickly a new one and now it slowly rises from the ashes … or I hope so at least … as I, so does my next chapter. _

_Have fun … and keep in mind English is still not my first language :) _

* * *

_Big thanks again, goes to my Beta: KodiakWolfe13 _

* * *

_Chapter 8: The visit_

Saturday at Mount Justice was often the same, if the group of teenage heroes that called this their home base, had no urgent mission. They gathered all together in the hide-out, spending time as a team, sometimes helping each other with homework or studying for upcoming exams. It was also the time they occasionally had private training sessions with Black Canary or a different tutor from the League, helping them to exceed with their own special sets of skills.

Today's Saturday was no difference. Shouting echoed through the rock wall corridors, leading an attentive listener to the main living quarter in the cave, an open plan kitchen and living room area.

Two boys sat on the spacious sofa in the centre of the room in front of a big screen TV module. One had raven black hair and dressed casually in jeans, a green shirt and an open black hoodie. Sunglasses obscured his face. The other boy had bright red hair and was dressed in a yellow, long-sleeved shirt under a red, sleeveless vest. Each teen had a controller in their hands that they used to steer their vehicles over a digital track, all the while shouting profanities at each other.

Superboy, Zatanna and Artemis were seated at the counter by the kitchen, all three also in casual clothing, half-watching the boys playing and half-observing Miss Martian as she attempted to make a new peanut-butter cookie recipe.

Kaldur'Ahm, Kaldur for short or Aqualad, had yet to arrive. It was not unusual for him, though. As the official leader of the team, he held a lot of responsibilities.

Loud cheering caught the overall attention of the room's occupants, steering their attention to Wally and Robin. The later held up his arms in a winner position, while the redhead had fallen back in his seat, groaning in defeat.

"Another win for Robin, I see." Spoke a rough voice behind them, turning all head to the entry. Leaning casually against the doorframe was a dark skinned young man with unusual blond, almost white, coloured hair.

"Kaldur, good to see you," greeted Zatanna first. M'gann, as Miss Martian preferred to be called by her friends, came next holding a plate with the finished cookies under his nose.

He declined politely and said, "Just so you know, Batman just arrived and I..." He was interrupted by the centre screen turning to a live video showing the Dark Knight. "Suit up and report to the hangar. You have a mission." Just as suddenly as his announcement came, the screen switched back and the seven teens looked at each other.

"As I was saying, I think he has a mission for us." Kaldur smiled and turned in the direction of their hangar/trainings area. The others quickly followed.

First to arrive was, as usual, Wally, even with stopping at his own room to change into his red and yellow suit. Batman stood in front of a console to the side of the open plan hangar area, waiting for the rest to follow his call. Once the full team had arrived, the Dark Knight glared at each teen for a brief moment, wordlessly ordering them to be silent, before he turned towards the console again.

"This mission will only require three of you. The others have an extra training objective later on."

The teens shared a quick and confused look, as they rarely received missions that split them up.

"Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash, this will be your mission: protection detail. You three will accompany your target to these coordinates." On the screen above, the seasoned hero had several digits appear, the digits being the longitude and latitude of the location.

Robin swiftly typed in the numbers into his wrist computer, confirming the location on a holographic map: "Wisconsin?" He tilted his head to the side, "… Greenwood Cemetery."

"A graveyard?" Inquired Aqualad. "What is there to find?"

"My parents." Came the answer from behind them, a slight echo in the voice.

As one, the seven protégés spun around, surprised that someone had entered the room without their notice. Before their eyes was a young man, slowly fading out of invisibility. White and black was his overall colour scheme. Only his eyes- a toxic green -differed from it.

Each young hero, except Robin, who recognised Danny in his non-human form from pictures, got in a battle ready stance.

One eyebrow raised, the half-ghost teen glared at them for a moment, then focused on the adult in the back. "I don't need a babysitter, Batman."

"This is not up for debate."

"Fine," The teen threw his hands in the air before crossing his arms over his chest. "But they need stay out of range and no eavesdropping. What I have to say is private."

"Agreed," approved Bruce, "Team, meet Phantom." He introduced.

Seeing that their surprise guest was not a danger, the teens all relaxed back into a normal stand.

The halfa waved a short greeting, his posture still showing how peeved he was. "Call me Danny, please."

Kaldur was the first to step forward. "Hello. I am Aqualad," he pointed at the next teen to his left, "This is Miss Martian," and continued to point at each member as he introduced them, "Zatanna, Artemis, Robin, Kid Flash and Superboy."

"Nice to meet you." Greeted Manhunter's niece with a smile, holding her hand out for him to take.

Danny did and genuinely smiled back at her "You too."

Batman had stepped away from the console, walking slowly around the group, stopping next to the female green alien girl. "Miss Martian, please prepare the Bioship."

"Sure." She waved a quick goodbye to Danny and flew over to the red and black blob near the end of the cave.

"Soo," caught Wally the attention from Danny, "Why the protection detail? My guess, you can do more than just become invisible." Wally guessed, pointing out the athletic build of his body.

The halfa huffed in the direction at the only adult among them, glaring at him, not offering any answer to the question.

"Phantom is not from around," offered Batman as explanation.

"Yeah…what about his parents then?" questioned Zatanna.

"Well…they're not my real parents…" mumbled Danny scratching the back of his neck. "They kind of are…were…" He let out an exasperated sigh, "but then again…never have been in this universe."

"You're from a different dimension?" asked Artemis.

Green eyes turned to the female archer. "Different universe, not dimension."

Tilting her head she sized him up, "Isn't it the same?"

"No it's not." Danny started, but was interrupted by Batman, who said, "You can explain later. The ship is ready."

"Then let's go." Kaldur said, taking over. He waved his arm in a gesture for Danny to go first, not trusting the teen quite yet.

Rolling his eyes, Danny followed the subtle order.

Once inside of the spaceship, Robin took the chair in the middle of the small room that made the cockpit, preparing it for launch. Danny followed his hands with interest, comparing the control in his memory against the few jets and the one shuttle he had flow in his lifetime.

He was so focused that he missed the question that Kid Flash had asked. The boy was waving his hand in front of Danny's face as he said, "Hey, earth to Danny."

The halfa recoiled from the closeness but didn't lash out. He only glared with his glowing green eyes, annoyed at the other teen. "What?" H spat out, more aggressive than intended.

Wally flinched slightly from the death glare transmitted through the eerie glowing eyes but recovered almost immediately, "I asked if we've met in your '_universe_.'"

Danny's eyes turned sad. "No." He turned his head to the side, looking out of the window.

"What about other heroes?" Wally asked again.

Danny sighed, hurt and sadness dimming the slight glow surrounding him as he said, "There were no heroes."

"What about you?" inquired Aqualad, still having a bad gut feeling about their guest. The flinch that followed his question did not go unnoticed.

"I," his voice was sad when Danny managed to answer, "I may have protected my world to the best of my abilities, but only few people saw the things I did as heroic, and later in the war, they just saw me as a tool, a weapon to defeat the otherwise invincible enemy."

"War?"

Danny weaved his glowing fingers through the white mop of hair on his head, turning away, looking outside. "Can we please not talk about it? Not right now, at least?"

"Sure," jumped Robin in, glaring at his team leader, transmitting wordlessly to drop the questioning.

Kaldur narrowed his eyes at Batman's protégé. The dark haired teen knew more of this than he let on, courtesy of his mentor, most likely. He didn't like being left out of the information flow. In general, Batman had not told them anything about Phantom and what he was capable of. The question, though, was why.

Danny, on the other hand, knew exactly why the Bat had only shared the minimum of information with the team. He wanted the others to ask and for Danny to talk, something BC, Manhunter and himself struggled to get him to do. Secretly rolling his eyes, he waited for the questions to come.

"What are your powers? Where did you get them? Where you born with them or did you had an accident?" rapidly asked Wally.

Aqualad could see Robin flinch then roll his eyes at his friend. Phantom, he could see, was half way to a face-palm when he stopped himself, deciding against it.

* * *

_ ... Several hours later ..._

* * *

Bruce had been home in Gotham, working on a few thing for his company, when he received a mission update from Red Tornado. Kaldur's team and Danny were on their way back, and they requested medical attention by arrival. Being alone at the moment, the usual scruffy man didn't have to hold back the annoyed growl that passed his lips. Trust in Dick and the others to find trouble on a simple mission such as this. With a sigh, he let Alfred know that he would be out and used the 'Zeta-access' from the cave to travel directly to 'Mount Justice.'

Perfectly timed, he arrived with only a few moment to spare in the hangar. The android Red Tornado and Miss Martian were already waiting. The bioship passed the hidden entrance into the hide-out and slowly descended onto her usual spot.

When the door had fully opened, it was Wally who appeared first. His right arm carefully supported an injured Robin, a bloody bandage around his upper left leg. Together, they slowly limped down the few meters to the ground. The second they reached the end of the gateway, Miss Martian used her telekinesis to levitate Batman's protégé and adopted son onto the waiting stretcher.

Searching out his mentor's eyes, Robin tried to sit up after he was placed. The glare he found made the teen flinch.

"Batm-"

"We will talk about this later," The Dark Knight interrupted, giving the green alien girl a signal to take him away.

With his right arm free to use, Kid Flash warped it around his own mid-section. He looked up to the intimating hero. Bruce noticed the stiff posture from Wally, pain displayed in his eyes and with a curt nod, he ordered him wordlessly to follow Robin to the infirmary.

'_So both of them had been injured_,' Bruce thought as narrowed his eyes, waiting for Kaldur and Danny to appear. On que, the young halfa stepped out of the shadows. Batman could not see any obvious damage on the teen. He, however, noticed right away his rigid posture and his arms held securely behind his back. The conclusion wasn't hard follow: Danny's hands were cuffed.

Right behind the white haired teen came Kaldur, one of his bearers formed as a mace in his hand.

The detective searched out the green eyes from Danny and received a tentative smile. Whatever had happened, the young halfa was okay. Fixing his glare on the Atlantian, he waited only long enough for them to be in earshot and growled, "Start talking!"

"Phantom made a deal with Kranio." Claimed Kaldur.

"I did not!" Danny indignantly replied.

Bruce held up his hand and wordlessly ordered Phantom to be silent. Looking at Kaldur, he ordered, "From the beginning."

The dark skinned teen gave his captive one last glare before turning completely towards to the seasoned hero. "We arrived at the confirmed location. Robin landed the bio ship behind a grove of trees, hidden from view…

* * *

With an inaudible hiss, the hatch on the end of the alien spacecraft opened. First to step a foot on the ramp was Wally, closely followed by Danny, Kaldur and Robin coming last.

"Kid Flash, do a recon. See if anybody is in the near vicinity." Ordered the Atlantian.

Wally confirmed the command with a sharp nod and ran faster than a mundane human could dream of into the distance. Ten second later, he came to an abrupt stop, startling Danny with his sudden appearance. "Some rabbits in the field behind the trees and a couple of crows. There's nothing else that is breathing.." Reported the red head, smirking at Danny's reaction.

"Good," confirmed Kaldur, "Robin."

"No," Danny interrupted. Kaldur narrowed his eyes at the half ghost. Danny said, "Batman agreed that I go alone." The older boy was hiding his displeasure well; nonetheless, Danny could still feel it. "If you insist, you can stay within sight but not in earshot. What I have to say is private."

They may not be his real parents, but they were the closest thing to blood relatives Danny would ever be able to find in this universe.

For a second, he thought Aqualad would protest but a barely visible shake from Robin stopped him. Now unchallenged on his word, Danny released the hold of his flight and made his way to the place that held the last remains of Jack Fenton and Madison Belova, his mother's maiden name. The two had not been married when they had died by a freak accident in college.

Kaldur waited until Danny was, in his opinion, far enough away, then turned to Robin, his arms crossed over his chest and fury blazing in his eyes. The normally cool Atlantian was a breath away from shouting as he questioned, "What was that about?"

Dick rolled his eyes, not hiding the annoyance over the antics of his team leader. "Don't know what you're talking about. Danny hasn't done nothing to deserve your animosity against him; nonetheless, you are treating him as if he had kicked your puppy."

Kaldur glared at Wally, who snickered at the mental image. The teen said, "He is keeping a secret from us. Doesn't it make you suspicious? Normally, you are the one who wants to know everything."

Wally was about to ads his own opinion when Kaldur suddenly continued to rant at the other teen. "But then, your casualness must mean you already know! So you are keeping information us too? Here I thought we were a team."

Even the typical lax character he was, Kid Flash cringed at this low blow. It had been a month since any member from the Young Justice had questioned the integrity of another member. However, the blow Wally had expected as retaliation didn't come. Instead, he observed Robin tilt his head to the side and closely examine the reaction of their team leader and friend.

The young boy came to the conclusion that Aqualad's behaviour was perhaps caused by Danny's physique. It was similar to the half ghost's reaction to Superman, only reversed. Robin didn't lose his temper, like he might have in the past, and spoke in a calm tone. "Are you done?"

Kaldur glared at him in reply but didn't speak up.

"Good. Yes, I _do_ know more about Danny because I asked or he shared this information willingly. I _don't_ know everything. He is highly secretive, something that is to be expected with his background. The question is what makes _you_ so hostile against him? Sure, Batman hasn't shared all he knows about Danny, but tell me when had he ever done something like that?" Robin took a deep breath. He was about to appeal to Aqualad's rationality when suddenly all three found themselves on the ground.

Each of them were pinned down by a huge, mechanical, wolf-like creature. It pressing its heavy paws on their shoulders, effectively preventing any movement.

"The sidekicks…" A dark voice spoke behind them. Aqualad, Robin and KF had to strain their necks to get a look at their attacker.

"Kranio," grunted Robin as he recognized the man.

"Who would guess that Batman had the balls to give something so valuable to a bunch of teenager?"

Wally made a tentative push to free himself and was rewarded with a dangerous snap of two rows of metal teeth closing just a breath away from his nose.

"What are you talking about?" asked Aqualad, carefully manoeuvring his legs into a better position.

"Don't try to deny it. I know that one of you has it."

"Has what?" questioned Wally.

"My guess is on the little bird… Hm…what do you think Amber?" The canine next to the mercenary snarled. The robot over Robin shifted, his sharp claws slicing easily through the enhanced fabric and into his thigh. The young teen screamed in pain, unable to move his attacker off him.

Pushed by the agony from their friend, Kaldur and Wally managed to break free of the robot animal holding them down. The Atlantian immediately has his two water bearers active, each forming a pain-promising mace. Meanwhile, KF had run off, gaining enough momentum that when he barrelled into the robot holding Robin down, the machine was upturned enough for the trapped teen to jump back. Robin stood on his right and uninjured leg, adrenalin pumping through his body.

"My, my, look who got some fight left in their bones." Laughed Kranio. His loyal companion on his side snarled at the three teenage heroes. On command, the robot canines attacked.

Kaldur used his mace, meeting the razor sharp steel claws in mid jump and denting the metal with the force behind the strike.

Defensively, Robin threw a hand full of exploding discs. The explosion was enough to blow the robot back at his master's feet.

Wally dodged the first two jumps from the metal animal that was focusing on him. By the third time, he stumbled over some root on the ground and a cold metal hit him square on the chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs. He stayed on the ground gasping for air.

One of the three robots moved in front of his master protectively. The mercenary pulled his smoke grey Desert Eagle from his thigh holster. The safety unclipped, and Kranio held it in his right hand with a smug grin on his face. "I think killing the three and searching their corpses will be the best, Amber." Kranio lifted his weapon and aimed it at the still grounded KF, the boy's accelerated healing not having yet the chance to work though the extensive damage to his chest.

Before any of the group could react, a black and white figure landed with a thud in the free space between the two groups. The boy held out both of his hands, not trusting his back to anyone.

"Enough!" shouted Danny, the echo in his voice much more audible than before and the energy behind the simple command vibrating into the ground.

Kaldur's grasp on his weapon strengthened, draining all colour from his knuckles. Something in him stirred and made it difficult to decide who was enemy and who was friend.

Kranio took in the new boy, aiming his weapon at his chest. "And who might you be? I've never seen you before. Are you new to the circus?"

"That is none of your concern." Snarled the young halfa. "Who are you?"

"A, a, ah I asked fist."

"Name is Kranio, a mercenary and thief." Robin jumped in.

"No telling!" yelled the bulky man, firing a warning shot at Batman's protégé's feet. A green energy barrier appeared, ricocheted the bullet back at the shooter, barley missing him.

"Nobody hurts my friends." Spat Danny, glaring with blazing eyes at Kranio.

* * *

"Friends?" asked Batman, the raised eyebrow audible in the one word question.

Phantom met the Dark Knights eyes and shrugged. "It felt right to say it at this point."

* * *

Steel blue eyes focused on the halfa. "So you do belong to the sidekicks."

Otherworldly green eyes flashed angrily at the mercenary. "I belong to nobody."

The mercenary's companions growled at the half-ghost teen, hackles raised, ready to pounce at the slightest order. They were interrupted by a double beep at Kranio's hip. He looked at Danny and said, "You!"

Danny tilted his head, confusion all over his face. "What?"

"You have the Thermos and its energy source. Give it to me! Now!" demanded the older man.

"No," declined Danny, his posture tense. _'How does he knows of the Thermos?'_

With a snap of his fingers, the three metal animals turned towards the halfa, underlining the thread with their deep growling.

Not showing any sign of being intimidated and readying himself for an attack, Danny said, "The Thermos belongs to me."

"Belongs to you?"

Danny nodded, "Yes."

"How so?" inquired the other, irritated by the claim from the young teen.

Danny ignored the subtle shake from Robin and answered honestly, "I built that Thermos."

"You've built…" the mercenary stammered, "What's with the energy source?"

"It's in my possession" Danny confirmed.

"Your possession…"

"Were you a parrot in your previous life or do you like repeating everything I say?" Quipped the halfa.

Sensing her master's anger, the real canine at the mercenary's side let out a deep growl, baring her teeth at the teen. Kranio found himself mirroring the sound. He had to rethink his strategy quickly, especially if the white haired teen before him was the one who created the Thermos _and_ was able to control what was inside… Andrew and Mr. Luthor would even be more generous with their payment, possibly adding some sort of extra bonus. Therefore, making the young man his enemy would be counterproductive, so he coughed the growl into a laugh. "Aren't you a joker? Fine, if that thermos is yours, what do you want for it? I'm interested in buying it."

"Sorry, not for sale."

"You haven't even thought about it. You are what, 16? 17? You and your parents sure could use some cash these days." Bargained Kranio. He missed the dark expression from the young man as his parents where mentioned. Though, when he finally noticed it, it was already said.

With a dark glare, the teen explained, "My parents are dead. As I already said, I belong to no one!"

Kranio swallowed the sharp counter that lay on his tongue. Instead, he replied more carefully "Then you could use the money all for yourself."

"No," stated Danny firmly. "I can manage without your money just fine."

"Hm," the older man hummed, scratching his unshaven check. "If it's not money you are interested in, then maybe something else? My employer can be very resourceful."

Danny hesitated, not with the thought of actually agreeing to something, but over the revelation that someone behind Kranio pulled the strings, and apparently, it was someone with a lot of power.

His prolonged silence didn't pass unnoticed. Kaldur, still exasperated, growled, "Phantom!"

Robin promptly hushed the Atlantian.

The young half ghost teen sent an angry glare at the team leader. He would've preferred having his name not mentioned so early on.

"Phantom…interesting name choice." Remarked Kranio.

"Sure." Danny's green eyes switched back to the mercenary. "Anyway, I'll meet your employer."

With a winning smile, Kranio made a move forward but was promptly interrupted by Phantom raising his hands. "However, it will be on my terms." Danny ignored the quiet growling from the teen heroes behind him and focused on the older adult. "In three days, we will meet again. There," he pointed at a nearby group of trees, "At noon."

The mercenary hesitated. It would create an easy way to ambush him, as the brats had heard every word spoken between them. He asked, "What about them? And the rest of the League?"

"They can't do anything. As I said, the Thermos and its content is my property and to my understanding, I can do with it as I please."

"Not sure they will take it as well as you may think." Kranio said, pointing at Aqualad.

"Let me worry about it. Now go!" Danny said before adding, "And don't try anything or any possible deal is off. If that happens, the Thermos goes to the League, understood?"

Kranio nodded and with a sharp whistle, the robots and his canine companion retreated.

* * *

"Hm," Batman hummed thoughtfully, sizing Danny up with a calculating look. "It's risky."

The halfa shrugged, bringing both his hands to the front, handing over the lose titanium cuffs. "Not any more than it'd be if they surprised me at another time. This way, I'm aware they will come and can prepare for it."

A low growl turned their attention towards Kaldur. "You are approving of this?"

Robin's mentor glared a long second at the Atlantian, tiling his head so slightly nobody really noticed. After the short moment of irritating silence, he turned his eyes from Kaldur to Phantom, wordlessly ordering, _'Tell him.'_

Danny sighed, crossing his arms over the chest, showing his dislike to the obvious command; however, seeing that he had no reason to refuse, he spoke, "It's a ruse, Aqualad. I won't sell anything to Kranio, nor to any of his employer."

"How can we be sure that you are not lying to us right now?" He asked aggressively.

Danny had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "For starters, you don't see Batman protesting." When he noticed that the other teen still refused to relax, Danny added, "And second, selling that mentioned energy source would be selling myself into slavery, something I sure as hell won't do."

"Yourself?" Kaldur asked confused, his posture finally loosening, even only a fraction. It still showed, though, that the Atlaner was listening.

"Yes."

"How is that possible? You are clearly a person..."

Unaware about his actions, Danny rubbed his neck in a nervous habit. "I'm very different to anything you have ever encountered. I'm only half human and my second half is based on an energy matrix."

"Like Captain Atom?" He asked, looking at Batman.

"Not directly, but similar, yes." Offered the experienced hero as explanation.

Kaldur thought about the new information for a moment, looking from Batman to Danny. "The energy source in the Thermos, Kranio spoke of, was you then? How?" He wanted to know.

"The Thermos was specially designed to hold beings from my not human half. The war I mentioned previously," here Danny made a breath long break, giving the other teen time to recall the memory, if necessary. "That was between those two species. It working on me as Phantom is just an unlucky coincidence."

"Then why offer the Thermos at all and risk captivity?"

"Kranio is not the one in charge. Whoever has hired him and his guns is. I'm new to this world, but I for myself know it would be suicide to kill any of your team. The retribution of the League would be hell on earth. Kranio was ready to risk that." Danny shared a meaningful look with Batman. "I felt that to keep his interest in the thermos a secret, he planned to leave nobody alive. He has someone powerful enough to protect him, if the full force of the League would call for his blood."

"Not many people hold that amount of power. I'm sure we can find this out without 'faking' a deal with Kranio, risking your capture." Suggested the other teen.

"We won't know for sure, if I don't do this." Danny saw that Kaldur was about to add another argument, so he quickly continued, "Remember, I'm new to this universe. My powers and abilities are unknown. The risk is the lowest as it can be right now, and I prefer to know who is after me so that I can be prepared when they try again."

Kaldur looked at Batman, searching for an indicator that the seasoned hero would be swayed to his side of the argument. When he saw nothing, he sighed deeply and deactivated the energy bearer in his hand. "Fine." He turned around and left, leaving the other two standing.

Once the Atlantian was no longer in earshot, Batman turned towards Danny again. "You have another reason. What is it?"

The white haired teen nodded, green eyes looking into nothing. "Kranio had a radar to track my energy. I've seen those before in my world. I can't say how good it is, but if it's any good at all, it will be able to follow my human half as well."

"This could result in exposure of your secret and endanger with whoever you will stay." Summarized the Dark Knight.

Danny nodded. "Though, I should be able to mask my energy signature once I know how the radar is set up."

Batman thought about the possible risk and finally agreed.


End file.
